Pirate Tennis Prepares To ‘Rush The Net’

By NICK YAMASHITA

The Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Tennis team began holding practice for their new season out on the courts for both boy’s and girl’s tennis. Head Coach Donna Swanson was busy calling out instructions and reminding players to “rush the net” last week.

“We have a lot to work on,” Swanson said. “But to tell you the truth, we are just excited to have a full season.”

The 2020-2021 season was shortened and, instead of the usual fall months, it was held during the spring of 2021. This was due to the restrictions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the Pirate teams are finding it a short turn-around to be back up and running for a new season. And this time, fans will be allowed back on the courts. Most student athletes expressed joy that their parents would be able to watch their matches this season.

Assistant Coach Robin Ozaki explained how things will be different this year. “We only have about 4-5 girls returning this year for tennis,” Ozaki said. “But we do have lots of new faces and most have never swung a racket at a tennis ball before. So it will be a lot of work at the beginning to get the fundamentals down. Still, we are excited for the new season.”

The boys team does have some returning leadership and experience. While the team’s ranks of star players graduated in May, the boys team still has about eight athletes returning, including several for singles and several for doubles.

Seniors Cole Neilson, Wyatt Clove, and Tanner Western will be returning. Juniors Nick Hoy, Collin Sims, and Hunter Landini will be adding some pizazz with their past experience as well.
A few sophomores are also returning including Mason Wheeler and Marcus Leavitt.
The rest are new to sport with several freshman and sophomores adding to the team’s ranks.

On the girls side, the team lost the majority of their best players due to graduation. However, they’ve salvaged some good experience in senior Carlaya Christensen and junior Savannah Aikele.

Additional athletes returning include senior Alee Hillstead and juniors Shaylee Adams and Jorja Freeman.

After that, the majority of the team are “newbies”. They will have to adjust quickly to the fundamentals as they will be playing some Vegas teams with players who have private coaches and play like semi-pro players.

Despite these challenges, the turnout for tennis was strong this year.
“We have the most tennis players we have ever had here while I have been coaching,” said Coach Ozaki.

The Girls team has 22 athletes on the roster while the Boys team also has 22. The last time the tennis teams were this full on rosters was back in the late 1990’s.

The Pirates will be holding practice every day with the girls at 2:00 pm and the boys at 3:30 pm.

The season starts on Saturday, August 21st with a tournament at Faith Luthern in Las Vegas.

The first home match will be on Aug. 25 when the Pirates will be hosting Adelson on the home courts.
Other home matches include Pahrump Valley (Sept. 14), Canyon Springs (Sept. 23), Virgin Valley (Sept. 27) and The Meadows (Oct. 5).

Tennis 2021 Season Schedule

Aug 21 9 AM Faith Lutheran
Aug 21 12:30 PM Shadow Ridge
Aug 25 3 PM Adelson
Aug 27 3 PM Western
Aug 30 3 PM Boulder City
Sep 01 4 PM Mojave
Sep 14 3 PM Pahrump
Sep 20 3 PM Sunrise Mountain
Sep 23 3 PM Canyon Springs
Sep 27 3 PM Virgin Valley
Sep 30 3 PM Cheyenne
Oct 05 3 PM The Meadows

Oct 11-16 Team Regionals
Oct 18-23 Individual Regionals
Oct 28-30 State Championship South

Home games in bold
Schedule subject to change without notice