On Oct. 1, the De Soto High School girls’ tennis team took first at an all day invitational tournament at Bonner Springs High School.Overall, Jamie Kiefer took first in number two singles, Emily Euler and Raegen Ramsdell took first in number two doubles, and Liv Young and Taylor Hanson took second in number one doubles.

“I think we played really well. I kind of wish regionals was this weekend just because they’re playing so well. I don’t want to wait a week,” coach Justin Hoffman said.

Although all the girls did extremely well at the invitational, Hoffman said Ramsdell in particular showed some major improvement.

“That’s probably the best I’ve seen Raegen play. There were times throughout the day where I couldn’t even recognize who it was on the court. It was really impressive,” Hoffman said.

Ramsdell is proud of how both she and Euler played and how they worked together on the court.

“Me and Emily, we played really well together. Usually, one of us plays better and we just kind of trade, but yesterday we both did pretty good together,” Ramsdell said.

The invitational was Ramsdell’s first win this season.

Moving forward, the team is hard at work preparing for Regionals on Oct. 9 and 10 and is hoping to get several girls qualified for state.

“I hope to have some State qualifiers. We’re kind of in a position where we don’t really know what everyone else has. Liv and Taylor were one round away last year, and I think they’ve got a really good shot,” Hoffman said. “Singles is going to be really tight … It will just depend on how they play.”

With a tournament win under their belt, the tennis team is both nervous and excited for Regionals.

“I think we could do really good [at regionals] this year, but we’ll see,” Ramsdell said.