The harsh winter of Nebraska is almost over and spring is on the way. With that comes spring sports and girls tennis season has already begun. However, there is a new face on the courts. Coach Jordane Warkentin will be going through her first spring season with the girls. This year there are a lot of seniors on the team, and Warkentin says that they will be a big help.

“As a first year coach for these girls, I am excited because there are a lot of seniors so there is a lot of leadership,” Warkentin said. “I am excited to see what they can do with motivating the new girls on varsity. I am really excited to work with girls. This is my first season working with high school girls, so I think it will be fun to push them to do their best.”

Along with the seniors, there are multiple new varsity players on the team. This creates some sort of a space between the experienced and the new, but Warkentin is optimistic that this will change as the team goes into the later weeks of the season.

“The new girls are all extremely coachable, which is awesome because we can help them improve right away,” Warkentin said. “So while there may be a gap between the different players on varsity right now, we will be able to close that gap within the first couple of weeks of practice.”

Last year, Westside sent a couple of players to state but Warkentin hopes that they can improve on the outcome this year.

“The hopes for this season are to place in the top ten for state and then for every dual, I just want every girl to compete as hard as they can so there is going to be a lot of improvement in the first couple of weeks,” Warkentin said.

You can watch the team play in their first match on Tuesday, March 20 at home.