Laramie High School Tennis Looks To Fill Some Voids

As the 2016 high school tennis season approaches, both Laramie High School line-ups have some gaps to fill in.

Coming off a fifth place finish at state by the Lady Plainsmen and a sixth from the Plainsmen last year, both squads return four varsity players from 2015.

Head coach Elizabeth Clower is in her second season at the helm of the program. She admitted there will probably be some shifting early on.

“These first few matches, we probably will mix the line-up up a little bit as we’re looking at, especially two and three doubles teams…. Hopefully, by that third weekend, they’re all set, so that most of our conference play is with the same team.”

The Lady Plainsmen are led by returning All-State senior Lea Bergman, who was runner-up at number two singles in 2015. Also back are number one singles players Lucia Cho and Ally Franc. Cho is coming back off of injury last season. The final returner is Tori Longress, who played at number two doubles.

Clower said, “Our one and two singles are very strong, veteran players. I’m looking for great things out of them. For our double teams, we’re going to have some seniors out, who haven’t played tennis, but who are athletic and learning the game really quickly; looking for good things, though.”

The Plainsmen are on the opposite side, as they have to fill their singles positions atop the line-up. The number one doubles tandem of Miles Stump and Ky Fike return. They were All-Conference last season. Also back are number two doubles player Ben Graeff and number three doubles player Abijah Ahern. Laramie suffered a slight blow with the loss of Graeff’s partner, Jason Scott, to a season-ending injury.

Clower added, “We’ve got a lot of young, freshman out, but they’re freshman that have been playing tournaments and working hard. So, the competition for spots this year is really great among the boys.”

The youth in the program is reflected with only five seniors out of 43 players.

Laramie opens at home Saturday against Torrington at 10 a.m. and Riverton at 2 p.m.

All of LHS’ home matches are in the first two weeks of the season. The home finale will be on Sept. 2 against Cheyenne East. The rest of the schedule has them on the road. Regional tennis is in Cheyenne on Sept. 23 and 24. The state tournament is Sept 29 through Oct. 1 in Gillette.