HASLETT - “The Haslett Girl’s (Varsity) Tennis Team is excited, we qualified for the Division 3 State Tournament,” says Head Coach Henry Brunnschweiler. Round one of the State Tournament will take place in Holland, MI on Thursday, June 2nd. The road to Holland has been paved by six years of League and Regional Championships for Haslett.

The groundwork for this successful program was laid four years ago when Hannah Vogelsang, now the Number 1 Singles Player in the region jumped aboard. This marks her fourth straight Regional Championship. “It was super exciting, people have really come together and worked really hard, and the team is doing really well. We had all of our single flights win at regionals and three-doubles won,” says Vogelsang.

The first two consecutive regional titles, (first two in school history) were already captured by the time Vogelsang was a freshman, the program has been on the rise ever since. “We’ve had a succession of really strong players, we’ve had a lot of tournament players come in and they’ve taken some of the top singles spots,” says Vogelsang.

This tradition of winning has been placed in the hands of the coaching staff as well as the seniors. “We’ve set a team goal that we want to win our regional every year,” says Brunnschweiler. Haslett’s regional success may be attributed to the home court advantage they gain from hosting the Regionals right at Haslett High School.

For over the past 15 years, Haslett has hosted the Regionals, something Coach Brunnschweiler says is advantageous for the team. “I think we really utilize that to our best, we get some kids out from classes cheering on our players and it really motivates the players who normally don’t get recognized in their sports,” says Brunnschweiler.

Vogelsang enjoys the home court advantage, “It’s nice to see people from your school recognizing what you’re doing and what you’ve been working on.” This familiar atmosphere not only helps with fan attendance but strategy as well. “I’m used to our courts and some other courts are different colors, it’s always nice to be on your home court and have the confidence to win,” says Siwon Han, Haslett Girl’s Varsity Tennis Freshman.

At Regionals, Lakewood secured the second-place finish, qualifying them for the State Tournament and Williamston finished with 14 points placing them in third. Around twenty other Division 3 teams qualified for States.

During the offtime Haslett has been participating in scrimmages to keep the girls fresh and strong in preparation for States. “It’s nice to have fresh faces just because you’re not playing against the same people, you don’t know the in’s and out’s of their game,” says Vogelsang.

Also during the off-season, all of the coaches get together to seed the top six best players in every flight for States, the rest of the players are randomly assigned. Haslett was not seeded for the State Tournament, “We’re in a battle in a lot of our flights we’re not seeded this year in flights although we were very close,” says Brunnschweiler.

Haslett will match Chelsea in Holland, a team that they have competed against before. “I’m hoping for a top-12 finish. Considering how tough the teams are in our division and considering we have seven new faces in our starting lineup, all very young faces I think that would be a very good finish,” says Brunnschweiler.