The Lake Highlands varsity tennis team is only a week into the season and already showing signs that this could be another great year for the program.

Now in the second week of play, the good performances just keep on coming.

On Tuesday, the varsity squad played its first dual match of the school year against J.J. Pearce High School.

The Cats, who haven’t beaten the Mustangs in six years, had their closest fight yet, losing by the ever so narrow margin of 9-10.

The close loss must have lit a fire in the Wildcats, as the flame was plain to see on Saturday during a pair of matches against Denison High School and Sherman High School.

The Wildcats opened the day with a match against the Yellow Jackets of Denison.

Almost every match ended with a Lake Highlands victory, and almost all were won by impressive margins. The match ended up a one-sided affair, with a final score of 17 matches to 3.

After a quick lunch, the team faced a familiar opponent in Sherman High School.

Having played the Bearcats just a week before, the LH varsity team knew what to expect and turned in a dominating performance, this time to the tune of another impressive 15-3 victory.

Several players even went undefeated on the day, including Hana Ovcina, Danielle Rains, Shelby Furr, Ana Yanez, John Paul Turnham, Roman Milan, and Kendall Garousi, who combined for a record of 23-0.

A great day was also had by senior team captain Maggie Duffy. She went three for four, and in her three wins dropped only four games to her 32 games won.

Another team captain, Ryan Berg, who I reported last week as being out with an injury, put up a stellar performance on Saturday.

Berg fought through the injury to play four matches on Saturday, playing line one in each.

His back was in so much pain that he had to do an underhanded serve, which he had practiced relentlessly to make sure that it was better than most players’ regular serves.

Berg won three of his four matches and his grit and determination served as an inspiration for the rest of the team.

Next up for Wildcat tennis is the battle against the team's first district 9-5A opponent, WT White, on Tuesday, August 31st.

Come out and support your Wildcat varsity tennis team today at 4:00 p.m. at the LHHS courts!

GO 'CATS!