A talented high school girl’s tennis player is headed to state for a third time.
The ultimate achievement in high school sports is to qualify for state.
Doing it once is quite an accomplishment, but junior Megan Lamers of the Roncalli/Two Rivers girls tennis team is heading to Madison for a third time and for the first time as a singles player.
She and her sister Madison have gone together for the last two years as a doubles team, but she’s now a freshman at the University of Wisconsin.
Megan decided to make the move to singles, and it paid off.
She’ll take a record of 17 and 8 to the court at 12:15 this afternoon against junior Taylor Davies of Mukwonago, who’s 21 and 8, in the opening round of the Division One Singles competition at the Nielsen Tennis Complex in Madison.
Megan tells SeehaferNews.com, “It’s very different and harder playing singles than doubles, but it’s still special and I’m blessed to be going back to state this year.”
Her coach is Kristin Lamers, who happens to be a very proud mother as well.
“I think she felt like, ‘I’m moving to singles with no big expectations,’ and I think it took some of the pressure off,” she explained. “She just made up her mind to dedicate herself to working as hard as she could to get back to state, and she did it.”
Megan’s tennis career almost ended last summer when she suffered a freak shoulder injury during basketball camp.
She says she reflects on that day often, thankful for the opportunity to keep playing the sport she loves.
“There were times that I really didn’t want to work out or practice,” she recalled. “But I know that if I wanted to achieve my goals, then I had to put those negative thoughts out of my mind and work hard every single day.”
She also says she’s matured emotionally over the past 12 months.
“I’m more confident and willing to change my approach if necessary,” she noted. “I’m not as quick to get mad and just put my nose to the grindstone and head down and go win the next point.”
Her sister (Madison) will be in attendance today, doing all she can to help Megan get to the finish line.
Kristin added one final thought, saying, “I just need her to know that I and her entire family are very proud of her. She made the adjustment from playing doubles to singles in just a year’s time. Regardless of the outcome, we just want her to know how proud we all are of her accomplishments and that hard work really does pay off.”
The WIAA Girls State Tennis Tournament runs through Saturday.
