Zephyrhills High girl’s tennis had one of the most successful seasons in program history, bringing home its second district championship and first regional tournament win.
To commemorate the year, the team raised a banner in the gym and sign on the tennis courts. The last district title came in 1999 and the regional victory came against Nature Coast Tech.
“It was a great year,” said Zephyrhills coach Lorraine Hinkle. “The whole thing was just surreal. It was nice to have a couple extra weeks on the court.”
Hinkle has coached the Bulldogs for five seasons and her coaching this year was recognized by her counterparts in Pasco County. She was named the Sunshine Athletic Conference (SAC) coach of the year, which is voted on by coaches.
The coach is not the only person on the team who received SAC honors. Sophomore Sarah Vande Berg made first team all SAC, senior Chelsea Smith made the second team and junior Debbie Herlan made the third team. Smith and Vande Berg also reached the Class 2A state semifinals as a double team.
“I think our success this year will get more people interested in tennis,” Hinkle said. “I know we’ll have a couple middle school kids moving up and seven of our 10 players will be returning players next season.”
One of those departing players is senior Amber Morgenstern.
“It was my last year and I wanted to go out with a bang,” Morgenstern said. “We knew we had a good chance to win districts this year and it was great to pull it off…We were all really nervous in the regionals, but we came together as a team and did something no other Zephyrhills team has done.”
Also leaving are Smith, to graduation, and Herlan, who is a foreign exchange student from Germany and will return home after this school year. Returning players include Vande Berg, Danielle Barnett, Alyssa Angelo, Cierra Eson, Amanda Smith, Hannah Ungerer and Rachel Wise.
