Kankakee Valley High School

Yesterday’s heavy rains unfortunately forced the Kougars to cancel their home match. Today, the skies were dark and the wind was blowing pretty strong. Warm ups were briefly interrupted by a bout of rain that lasted just enough to soak the courts. The coaches, managers, and the team used large squeegees to try to spread out the puddles and speed up the drying process. Luckily, the sun came out and the bursts of wind now worked to make the courts playable again after a delay until 5PM. The girls again gave an impressive battle cry after introductions were given, and got ready to either play or to watch the first round of players begin. With such a large team, the Kougars below the top 14 were hoping to get some court time. It’s never a guarantee, but the Bombers were awesome enough to do a bunch of playbacks. These matches were shorter, and because of this, most of our girls got to play against them in doubles. A few duos played inter-team matches and had a lot of fun doing so. Freshman Greta Haze was brave enough to try out a singles match against Rensselaer too! After of the playbacks had ended, #2 varsity double duo McKayla Nuss and Sophia LeGrand still continued their match. Kougars and Bombers alike watched through the fence with intensity. At last, another tie breaker for the win. The Kougars took a lead, and built off of that lead. They were on a roll, especially when it was their turn to serve. Nuss and LeGrand hit numerous aces, really showing just how hard they’ve worked this season to grow their game. Even when emotions and stress grew after a point or two was lost, the girls focused and pushed through. After the match was over, Coach DeVries pooled the whole team together and praised everyone for such a fantastic day. Nuss and LeGrand were awarded tennis balls with their scores written on them as trophies for their intense battle. The overall final score ended up being 5-0 varsity and 4-0 JV! - JV Coach Anderson Special thanks to Lila Miller from yearbook for taking some of the photos posted.