With a win over Olathe East, the girls doubles tennis team of junior Lindsay Haight and freshman Kylee White took third place at the state tournament this past weekend in Wichita. This is the third consecutive year Haight has placed third at state, and White is only the third freshman in school history to go this far in the state tournament.

In order to advance to state, Haight said the team had to place in the top six at regionals. Haight and White exceeded this requirement with a fourth place finish.

“I was really happy that I got to go since it was [White]’s first year,” Haight said. “We got to experience it together.”

The girls arrived in Wichita Friday to discover the tournament had been snowed out for that day. It was rescheduled for the following morning, Haight said, and while it warmed up in the afternoon, the morning was still very cold.

“The most difficult part was the weather,” Haight said. “It was like 20 degrees and it was freezing. We had a bunch of different layers on and we were running around and it was hard. But it warmed up, thankfully.”

The first match of the tournament, the girls took on Hutchinson, Kan., and according to White, since BVNW was in the fourth seed they played a bad team and won very easily. The next match was against Manhattan, the first seed in the fourth hardest division, and White said though it was a challenge they pulled out the victory. The last match on Saturday was against a familiar Blue Valley West team, who BVNW had played before. White said because of this, she and Haight knew what to expect and were able to defeat the Jaguars.

“The most challenging part of state was all the good competition,” White said. “Everyone there was really good because they had to win regionals to get there.”

On Sunday, BVNW played Blue Valley High School, who was ranked as the first seed. According to Haight, the Tigers were very good and it was a rough match. Head coach Ted Fabiano said when playing tennis, it is always clear to see what the next level looks like. BVHS, Fabiano said, showed Haight and White what that level looked like better than anything he could have pointed out or told them.

“The team they played for third was a really hot team in the tournament,” Fabiano said. “They had beaten both Blue Valley North teams and they had just taken Shawnee Mission East to a third set in the semis. A lot of people were seeing them as kind of the hot team in the tournament. I’m sure a lot of people expected them to beat us for third place. But I thought our girls kept playing their strengths in the game and they played each point with the belief that their style of play would be a touch matchup for OE. They felt confident about it, so I felt confident about it.”With a loss in the semifinals, BVNW went on to play in the third and fourth place match against Olathe East. Haight and White had played them before, but despite the similarity, both said it was a tough match.

BVNW went on to defeat OE, and both Haight and White agree, it was the best match they played together all season.

“We were really happy,” Haight said. “[OE] had been doing really good and had barely lost in their last match. So we were nervous about it. But it was super cool when we won.”

Fabiano attributes the team’s success to their different style of playing. Haight and White do some things not many other teams do, Fabinao said, and this leads to their opposing team breaking down.

“They adjust really well,” Fabiano said. “They have multiple formations that they’ve practiced and that they’re comfortable with. If they’ve got a team that lobs a lot, they have a formation to handle it. If they’ve got a team that has strong volleys, they have a formation to handle it. Really, what showed in the third place match more than any other match, was their really strong serve and return. I felt like their opponents struggled to win games against our serve. I felt the way returned it gave us a chance to serve each time.”

Haight and White agree they communicate well on the court, which helps them recognize both their own and their opponents weaknesses. White also said she believes they are more aggressive than the norm since they like to be at the top of the net rather than hang back. While they are unsure if they will be paired as doubles partners next season, both Haight and White said they have things they want to improve on.

“[For next year] I want to improve my overall game,” White said. “My ground strokes, my volleys, stuff like that. I’d like to win state now that the team who won state will be gone next year. That would be my goal.”