By OLIVER GOOD

Staff writer

A trio of veteran players will make up Hillsboro High School’s tennis team this year and team’s low numbers come as a double-edged racket, coach Bob Woelk said.

“We obviously won’t be a factor in team scoring with only three players,” he said. “The negative side of the low numbers is an inability to do a lot of drills that are set up for bigger groups. On the plus side, every player gets a tremendous number of reps and individual attention.”

Juniors Dakota Klein, Jacob Isaac, and Dylan Wiens will each be an integral part to the Trojan triangle.

“Jacob is the best pure hitter of the group,” Woelk said. “He has a serve with a strong kick. We want to develop a secondary, flatter serve to keep opponents off balance. We need to continue to work on his quickness to the ball.”

Isaac played mostly doubles with Dakota last year, but Woelk is not sure how the team will be configured this season.

“Dakota has improved each year he has played and has taken some lessons since last season,” Woelk said. “He has missed some practice for forensics meets, so he is a bit behind at this point. But, he covers the court pretty well and is a smart player.”

Woelk said Klein wants to play singles more this year as they work to improve his shot making.

Woelk said Wiens is the fastest player on the squad; however, he lacks consistency.

“He can make the spectacular return, but he doesn’t always make the routine shot,” Woelk said. “We will be working on that aspect.

By the time league and regionals meets come around, Woelk hopes the Trojans will be able to compete on higher level.

He also noted that Hillsboro will be host regional competition this year on May 5.

Their first meet is March 30 at Conway Springs.