Fall sports teams make it to district, state competitions

A Revere High School girls tennis duo made it to the State Tennis Competition, and the Revere girls’ volleyball team made it to the district competition, wrapping up the RHS fall sports season.

The tennis duo of Maddie Kavenagh and Morgan Dobos qualified for States. Freshman Maddie Kavenagh has been playing tennis consistently for six years. Even with all the experience, she had to prove herself worthy in order to represent Revere and qualify for the State tournament, since she is only in the ninth grade. 

“I had to prove myself all season long. I’m mainly a singles player, and our coach already knew Morgan could play doubles well, since she went to states last year. I had to show my coach and Morgan that I were capable of playing high level tennis,” Kavenagh said. 

    The State competition has many teams from different parts of Ohio. Competing against other teams and people for the first time can be challenging for teams. Sophomore Morgan Dobos has been playing tennis for almost ten years. In order to prepare for states, both Kavenagh and Dobos had to work hard and strive to improve. 

“States was a great experience. Preparing for [a] competition is hard sometimes, especially when schools [and] players are from different areas, but the main thing [that] Maddie and I did was focus on our own game strategies, [and] to try our best to compete to the best of our abilities,” Dobos said. 

Both Kavenagh and Dobos are striving to improve at tennis. Both student athletes take lessons outside of Revere and continue to practice and improve. The time between qualifying and the actual competition was only a week, but they have been preparing for this day for many years. 

“We did not get much time to prepare because there was only a week in between Districts and States. We played practice matches against other high-level teams. Morgan and I would do lessons together with one of our off-season coaches, and then we would do individual lessons with our off-season coaches,” Kavenagh said. 

Kavenagh and Dobos lost in the first round, but are keeping an optimistic view for next season. Kavenagh explained what it was like being at the competition and playing on a court that some of her idols had once played on. 

“Even though we lost [in the] first round, making it to states is a great accomplishment. Just being at the same courts that professionals such as Roger Federer and Serena Williams have played at was incredible,” Kavenagh said. 

Although the women’s tennis season may be over, Dobos and Kavenagh are already looking forward and preparing for next year’s season. 

“My hope for next season are to keep improving [and] to work hard and make it to states, but advance farther, as well as to keep getting better, developing as a team, and to have even more fun,” Dobos said. 

The volleyball team also made it to the district match this year. Senior volleyball player Alanna Ramsey has been playing volleyball for almost seven years. She explained that the process of qualifying for the district match is  based on regular season games. 

“You want to try and win as many of the games in your league as you can. And the Suburban League champs, which we were this year, get to have an easier seat in districts. And only some [of the top] teams get to move on to districts and basically it’s just a tournament play from there. If you win you keep going, if you lose you’re out,” Ramsey said. 

For Ramsey, this was one of the best seasons for the team. Having a close team allows for success on and off the court. 

“This year by far was one of the [most fun] seasons I have ever had. It definitely brought me closer to a lot of the people on the team and I think I definitely banked on them for being some of my closest friends. Playing with them on my senior year was definitely a great start to [this year] and definitely will be the best part of high school,” Ramsey said. 

The tennis team ended their season with an 11-9 record and the volleyball team ended their season with an 18-6 record.