SALINA — The doubles team of senior Inarie Rippert and junior Reygan Coonrod took first place in doubles at the State Tennis Tournament Oct. 17-18 at the Salina Tennis Center, leading the way for the Ellsworth team to bring home the firstever state team trophy, with all six players medaling.

The entire six-person varsity team qualified at regionals at Lyons Oct. 10-11 to compete at state. The winning team consisted of juniors Karli Haase and Hannah Vague playing singles, and Rippert and Coonrod and senior Felis De La Cruz and sophomore Makenna Anderson playing doubles.

The team took the top spot at state with 44 points, followed by a tough Conway Springs in second with 36 points and Wichita Classical in third with 23.

In doubles, Coonrod and Rippert placed first and Anderson and De La Cruz placed 10th. In singles, Haase placed second, while Vague took sixth.

Rippert and Coonrod went into their final match against the topseeded Conway Springs doubles team, knowing they were the underdog, but they spent years of training getting into this position.

“I think we started as a little baby sophomore and freshman, and I think we expected to do well at state,” Rippert said. “When we got second place my sophomore year, I thought, ‘OK, this is possible. We can do this.’ Then we got second the next year, I thought ‘OK, we’re coming back, we’re coming back for revenge we’re going to do it.’ And we came back this year and we had very good matches against both Conway Springs teams. We went in knowing that we were seeded second, they were seeded first and we were not expected to win, so let’s prove them wrong.

“Before the match, we found out we had the team title, so I think that pressure was kind of lifted off of us. I think after Hannah had won, someone came up and said you already had the team title, that was so much pressure lifted off of us. We didn’t have to beat Conway to get first as a team.”

“But we still wanted to,” Coonrod added.

With Rippert graduating, Coonrod will be missing her doubles partner next year, which will be difficult.

“I think I thought about it sometimes, but I tried to stay focused on this event and not really think about next season,” Coonrod said.

“I feel like our closeness is what makes us such a great team,” Rippert said of her longtime partner. “I feel like we kind of think like each other on the tennis courts. We communicate really well on the court, but I feel like we kind of communicate in our heads, like we know what we want to do, we know a strategy and we stay with that strategy.”

“Also having three years together, I feel like we’ve played so many matches, we know what we are looking for on the court and we know what the other person can do. I think we just kind of understand how each other plays, so it kind of just works,” Coonrod said.

The Ellsworth doubles team of Anderson and De La Cruz had the misfortune of being pitted against their teammates, Coonrod and Rippert, on day one of the tournament, which was a little deja vu, as the same thing happened at the regionals meet. Their loss against their teammates moved them to the bottom bracket on Saturday. However, they still medaled and gained valuable points for the team to reach the state title.

Haase, the second seed in singles, took second place individually, with a loss in the championship round against Sterling’s repeat winner, Chelsie Brown.

“I think I played the best I could against her. She’s an amazing player, and a very nice person overall, too,” Haase said.

She’s already thinking about what next year will look like for the team.

“Next year will be different without the seniors. We’re a tight team. I think that is what I could put all our success on, is our tightness as a team,” Haase said.

Vague placed sixth overall in singles. Her performance on Saturday morning over a Conway Springs player sealed the team win.

“Hannah had a huge win on Saturday morning against the No. 1 singles player from Conway Springs that sealed the deal for our team,” head coach Eric Anderson said. “And at the same time that Hannah was finishing up against Conway Springs, Makenna and Felis came up with a big win against Central Plains.”

“I am extremely proud of the girls for their performances this weekend at the 3-2-1A State Tennis Tournament.

They accomplished what they set out to do at the beginning of the season, which was to win the team title.”

Things look good to continue the team’s winning ways in the future.

“We return four of our six players on our varsity for next season, and nine of our top 12 players in total, so the future is really bright for this team,” Anderson said. “We will have to do a little reshuffling next season with the graduation of Felis and Inarie from our doubles teams, but I think that we could definitely be in the conversation for winning another state title next season.”