McKinney and Lizzie Harwood have been playing tennis since they were young. This year, they have been given the chance to combine their skills and play number one doubles for the Westside varsity tennis team.

McKinney, a junior at Westside High School, has been on varsity since her freshman year and won a state title last year in doubles with a different partner. Both sisters knew that they wanted to play with each other going into the season,

“My sister and I wanted to play together because we thought it would be really fun and we had a change to do well. But overall it was up to our coach to put us in the best position to help our team,” said Lizzie.

Although they play very well together at first they were a little apprehensive to become partners,

“When we first started practicing, we fought a ton so I was really scared we wouldn’t be able to really play together. We practiced a lot together before the season so now we know what gets on each other’s nerves and have started to have a lot more fun playing together,” Said McKinney.

Both sisters play in competitive tennis tournaments outside of high school tennis and are very successful on a national scale. However, they both value the time that they get to spend together on the high school court,

“My favorite thing is getting to share the experience with her. We’re really close so it’s fun being able to win the big matches and tournaments and getting to celebrate with her,” says McKinney.

And Lizzie feels the same way, “My favorite thing about playing with my sister is getting to experience winning big invites and tournaments together, it makes it way more fun.”