8/12/22
Second-year Alma tennis coach Bryan Jernigan plans to use the first week of the tennis season as a measuring stick.
The Airedales kicked off the 2022 campaign this week with matches against Springdale and Southside.
"Last year we were all freshmen and sophomores," Jernigan said. "This year, we’re still pretty young. The one senior is Logan Evans, who is probably our best player; he’s our No. 1 singles player ... He's really talented. He's a big motocross kid. He's really just a natural player."
Alma returns its top doubles duo as well, Jackson McMurray and Caden Farris.
"We've got a really good connection," McMurray said. "We played together last year and we played together really well. It means a lot to play in this program."
McMurray said the Airedales are so young most of its players haven’t yet competed in a varsity match.
"We're really young," he said. "We've just got to keep working. Half of these kids haven't played an actual match yet. It's really different between practice and matches. Once you play your first match, it's a completely different experience."
Jernigan said he’s considering letting Farris compete in singles matches, too.
"Right now we're going to play doubles with them," Jernigan said. "We may early, during nonconference, let Caden play some singles, just to see what it's like. That's about all they've done since they were freshmen."
The Lady Airedales are led by the top doubles duo of Kenadie Farris and Kensington Wadkins.
"They were our best doubles team last year," Jernigan said. "Kensington has been battling some medical issues with some back pain, but hopefully she’ll be fine.”
Alma will host its first home match on Aug. 16 when Farmington and Bergman compete in a tri-match.
The Airedales open 5A-West play Sept. 1 against Russellville.