Wauwatosa East has a young girls tennis team, but one that is willing to learn - and that pleases coach Glen Slonac.
The Red Raiders recently won three of five matches at the Tosa Invitational on Aug.16 and 17, losing to Oshkosh West and New Berlin Eisenhower and beating Greendale Martin Luther, Waukesha North and Wisconsin Lutheran.
The current Red Raiders lineup features sophomore Alayah Walls at No. 1 singles, junior Maja Tessmer at No. 2, sophomore Mariel Leering at No. 3 and senior Alexa Kraemer at No. 4.
Seniors Lauren Brown and Daisy Wedel form the top doubles team, followed by junior Heather O'Keefe and senior Julianna Gottwein at No. 2 and seniors Abby Vogt and Jaimie Knauss at No. 3.
"We have a lot of new people on varsity and are very inexperienced," Slonac said. "We have a very motivated group of players who listen to coaching and want to get better.
"Alayah at No. 1 is someone who doesn't have a lot of singles experience but is a good athlete who will get better as the year goes on. Overall, the team played well for the beginning of the year. I thought we played good against New Berlin Eisenhower and had our chances to win the meet but didn't pull out any of the three matches which went to match tie-breakers.
"We made too many double faults and need to serve better. We also need to keep working on improving our strategy."
Walls finished 1-4, Tessmer was 2-3, Leering was 4-1 and Kraemer finished 3-2.
"Leering played really well and was very patient in her play," Slonac said.
"Wedel/Brown played very good doubles and showed a lot of potential," he said. "They put themselves in position to win a couple matches against some very good teams, but fell a little short. They lost two matches in a third-set match tie-breaker."
Gotwein/O'Keefe and Vogt/Knauss each finished 3-2.
"For their first varsity experience, they played well and got better each match," Slonac said. "Once they start learning more concepts of doubles, they will get much better."
Slonac is pleased with his team's start, although it's still early.
"I am happy with the way we started the season and how competitive we were in mostly all the matches," he said. "We have a lot of things to work on, but the girls have a good attitude and want to get better."
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