All-Metro girls tennis team: Kapaun’s Clara Whitaker is named Player of the Year
Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior Clara Whitaker headlines The Eagle’s third annual All-Metro girls high school tennis team, as the four-time state champion is honored as the area’s Player of the Year.
The All-Metro team consists of three singles players, two doubles teams and a coach. The Eagle based its selections on the season’s results and area coaches’ feedback. Only players from Sedgwick, Butler and Harvey counties were eligible for the team.
Here is a look at the full 2020 Wichita Eagle All-Metro girls tennis team:
Clara Whitaker, Kapaun Mt. Carmel senior
An easy choice for The Wichita Eagle All-Metro Player of the Year, Whitaker finished one of the most illustrious careers in Kansas history with a perfect senior season.
Whitaker is one of just four girls in the state’s 50-year history of the sport to win four singles titles, joining Kapaun’s Megan Russell (1993-96), Osborne’s Brittany Dietz (1997-00) and Topeka Hayden’s Brooklyn Hunter (2015-18). The Wichita State commit finished her career with a 125-5 record.
It was a perfect senior season, as Whitaker finished 31-0 and did so against a demanding schedule. No opponent ever came close to taking a set off of her this season, as Whitaker won 92% of games (268 of 291). Her victories included three over eventual state champions and 13 over players who placed in the top-four of their respective state meets.
Kapaun coach Kathy Schulte believes Whitaker made a strong argument as the best player to come from the Wichita area.
“You can always speculate who would have been better and who would have won this or that match,” Schulte said. “But Clara has got to be right there at the top. I would put her at the top. She’s just that good, she really is.
“She’s so steady, so calm and she knows exactly what to do. She doesn’t rattle easily. There was never a time this year when I went over at a change-over and she seemed at all rattled or not sure what to do.”
Reagan Boleski, Kapaun Mt. Carmel junior
No player from outside of her own team has been able to beat Boleski for the last two years now. It just so happens that Boleski is teammates with a four-time state champion in Whitaker, who is the only player who has managed to top Boleski.
That was once again the case this season, as Whitaker and Boleski finished first and second in every tournament they played together, including at the Class 5A state tournament for the second year in a row. Upon Whitaker’s graduation, Boleski will be the title favorite in Class 5A next season.
The hard-hitting junior finished with a 25-4 record, including three wins over fellow All-Metro selection Paige Stranghoner of Bishop Carroll and victories over Collegiate’s Emma Mantovani (runner-up in 4A) and Carroll’s Brynn Steven (fourth in 5A). Boleski, a three-star recruit in the Class of 2022, is uncommitted ahead of her final summer of junior tennis.
“I feel bad that she hasn’t gotten the limelight that she deserves because she happens to be on the same team that Clara Whitaker is on,” Kapaun coach Kathy Schulte said. “Quite honestly, I don’t look at it as having a No. 1 and a No. 2. I believe I have two No. 1 players on my team. Reagan is an elite player and she really knows how to make opponents look bad. She has these incredibly strong shots and she just knows how to hurt her opponents.”
Paige Stranghoner, Bishop Carroll senior
There has been no better adversary for Kapaun’s two powerhouse players than Stranghoner over the past two seasons, as the Carroll senior has been the only player able to compete against them.
Stranghoner finished third place in Class 5A singles for the second straight season, behind Kapaun’s Clara Whitaker and Reagan Boleski, to cap a 21-4 season with her only losses coming to the Kapaun duo. Among her top wins, Stranghoner, an Emporia State commit, was able to top Trinity’s Isabella Sebits (4A state champion), Collegiate’s Emma Mantovani (runner-up in 4A) and her teammate, Brynn Steven (fourth in 5A), four times.
Most importantly, Stranghoner’s third-place finish at state helped deliver Carroll’s third team state championship in program history. On top of her back-to-back third-place finishes in singles at state, Stranghoner also notched a second-place finish in doubles in 2018.
“What impresses me the most about Paige is how hard she fights,” Carroll coach Darren Huslig said. “I don’t think she thinks any shot hit against her is a clean winner. She truly believes she can get any ball back and that’s just her mentality. She’s going to fight for every single point until she just grinds down her opponent.”
Emma Sinclair and Sarah Sinclair, Andover doubles
The pair of sisters never played against — or with — each other growing up, as they blossomed into accomplished singles players. But for Emma Sinclair’s senior season, she teamed up with her younger sister, Sarah, a junior, late in the season for what became a memorable run to a state championship.
After teaming up in late September, the Sinclair sisters finished with an 18-1 record and never dropped a set in postseason play. They topped Bishop Carroll’s own set of sisters, Heidi and Hope Lubbers, in the Class 5A championship match in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
“It’s a truly indescribable feeling,” Emma Sinclair said. “There’s no other person I could have done this with and there’s no other person I would have want to have done this with.
“Our whole lives have been leading up to this moment.”
In a normal season, Andover likely would have left the Sinclair sisters as singles player because Sarah (sixth) and Emma (ninth) were both returning 5A state medalists. But because the KSHSAA trimmed the number of state qualifiers out of regionals from six to four and Andover was in a regional that featured the state’s four best singles players, the Sinclair sisters started playing together for the first time in their lives.
It was a decision that Andover coach Stephen Alexander was ecstatic ended in a state championship.
“They are just both equally strong and opponents don’t know where to hit because there’s not a safe place to hit to and get out of a jam,” Alexander said. “Sometimes in doubles, you have to reset the point, but against those two there’s nowhere to go to reset the point. They just keep coming at you and they both hit the ball so hard and with such control, they just wear their opponents down.”
Lily Conrad and Ella Graham, Collegiate doubles
Once the off- and on-again partners teamed up for the postseason run, no team could slow down the Collegiate doubles team of Lily Conrad and Ella Graham. The pair of juniors were untouchable in October, winning the Class 4A doubles championship in convincing fashion over Circle’s Lanna Chase and Kenzi Gillispie in the title match in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4.
After losing their only match of the season at the first tournament of the season in August, the Conrad-Graham partnership would soon revenge that loss by beating Sacred Heart’s Isabella Matteucci and Katherine Weiss (runner-up in Class 3-1A) en route to an 18-1 season. Among their best wins, the Collegiate duo also handed Andover’s Emma and Sarah Sinclair (5A state champions) their only loss of the season, while also topping Central Plains’ Brynna Hammeke and Kyla Metro (third in 3-1A) and dealing Circle’s team just its second loss of the season in the 4A title match.
For Conrad, the state title was particularly gratifying after losing in the state championship match last season with another partner. For Graham, it was her first state experience. Their doubles state title also helped secure the Class 4A team state championship for Collegiate, which has been a team state title every year since 2009.
“I’m so proud of Lily and Ella because they have grown so much together this year,” Collegiate coach Dave Hawley said. “They faced down some of the best competition around and were triumphant in every match (at the end). They were just a dominant duo who were lights out for us all year.”
Cran Chase, Circle coach
While Bishop Carroll and Collegiate were able to capture team state championship, no coaching job was more impressive than what Chase was able to accomplish this season at Circle, a program with little tradition and no state trophies.
That changed this season, as Circle took home the runner-up team trophy at the Class 4A state tournament. Circle did this without the benefits of private lessons in the offseason and without a single player who plays tennis year-round.
Sure, Annabelle Adams and the doubles team of Lana Chase and Kenzi Gillispie are all great athletes who are competitive. But Adams’ first passion is playing the trombone, while Chase and Gillispie are all-state soccer players. Not that you could tell at the state tournament, as Adams placed third in singles and Chase and Gillispie finished runner-up in doubles.
While other programs qualified all four entries to the state tournament, Circle was able to finish ahead of every one of them besides Collegiate to win its first state trophy in school history with just two entries. Adams finished 28-2 in singles, while Chase and Gillispie were 23-2 as a doubles team.
“We thought we would have some success, but we didn’t know how far we could go at the state level, so the girls are just thrilled to death,” Cran Chase said. “Once we got to state, we kind of gave ourselves permission to hope that we could compete. We knew Collegiate was obviously the favorite, but we really did believe we could play with them. I’m so proud of our girls and it’s so cool we were able to do this.”
The Wichita Eagle All-Metro second team
Isabella Sebits, Trinity Academy sophomore
Sebits won the Class 4A singles championship as just a sophomore, as she had a dominant run at the state tournament. She won all four of her matches in straight sets, including a 6-0, 6-0 victory in the title match, and only dropped a total of six games at state. Sebits finished her sophomore season with a 29-4 overall record.
Brynn Steven, Bishop Carroll freshman
The next in line from the prestigious Steven family, Brynn is the only freshman singles player to make the cut following a fourth-place finish in Class 5A and a 22-9 season where all nine of her losses came to the top-three finishers at 5A state.
Emma Mantovani, Collegiate sophomore
For the second straight year, Mantovani reached the Class 4A singles championship match. She wasn’t able to win it this season, but did finish runner-up with a 21-9 record.
Heidi Lubbers and Hope Lubbers, Bishop Carroll doubles
The set of twins reached the Class 5A doubles championship match and helped deliver the second team state championship in Bishop Carroll program history. After a fourth-place finish in doubles last season, the Lubbers sisters finished their senior season with a 22-9 record.
Lana Chase and Kenzi Gillispie, Circle doubles
A pair of standout soccer players, Chase and Gillispie went from solid singles players last season to forming a doubles team that reached the Class 4A championship match. The duo finished 23-2 this season, not bad for their first year together after Gillispie transferred from Newton.
Darren Huslig and Dave Hawley, Bishop Carroll and Collegiate coaches
It’s only right for the two coaches who won team state championships share this honor, as Carroll won its third title in program history and Collegiate won its 12th straight team title this season.
This story was originally published October 26, 2020 at 6:05 AM.
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