Metro East Sun

The Region 24 women's tennis title is not the sole property of Lewis and Clark Community College -- it just seems that way recently.

On April 22, the Trailblazers dominated Rend Lake 9-0 to win the program's sixth consecutive region crown and earn another trip to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Tournament.

While the national tourney berth has become routine for Lewis and Clark, it is new territory for its first-year coach.

Johnna Kinney took over as head women's tennis and volleyball coach last August after having been retired for two years from coaching volleyball at St. Louis Community College, she told the Metro East Sun. This year was not only her first coaching tennis at Lewis and Clark, but also her first time coaching tennis anywhere, although she played in college.

Kinney said she found coaching tennis “a little intimidating” at first.

“I was confident in my coaching as far as knowing how to manage a team and motivate at team, but not super-confident in knowing how to teach specific skills of tennis,” she said. “But at this level, it's more about team management and motivation, and it worked out.”

The popular style of the women's game has changed since she played as well, she said, having gone from the way of Chris Evert to the power-and-athleticism method popularized by the Williams sisters.

Kinney also had to face coaching challenges she never had to deal with in volleyball, such as what to do about rainouts and dealing with a sport with more of an individual focus.

“I had to rethink a lot of my coaching strategies to handle that, but it has been fun,” she said.

She said she noticed a team mentality that came through as the season went along.

“They learned to rely [on], support and trust their teammates, and that was really a lot of fun to watch develop,” Kinney said.

Even though the season was a learning experience, the expectations were the same for the program, Kinney said: to go to nationals. Having consistent winning across the lineup has helped.

Going into the national tourney, the Trailblazers had non-losing records at every flight. According to records from Kinney, Maddie Swiecicki was 7-3 at No. 1 singles and teamed with Jane Grieser to go 5-4 at No. 1 doubles. Marta Caballero Garcia went 9-2 at No. 2 singles and 8-2 at No. 2 doubles with Laura Moore, who was 10-1 at No. 4 singles.

In other records, Grieser was 5-5 at No. 3 singles, Nina Breuer was 7-2 at No. 5 singles, Anna Holland was 8-3 at No. 6 singles, and Anna Ballard and Georgia Ballard went 4-3 at No. 3 doubles.

The national tourney was scheduled for May 7-12 in Tucson, Arizona. Results were unavailable at the time of publication.