Under normal circumstances Trinity tennis would’ve celebrated its senior night following a match versus Hauser on Thursday night, but the weather didn’t cooperate.
Heavy rain earlier in the day forced postponements across most sports in Jackson County. Trinity will host Hauser at 5:30 p.m. today, but the Cougars didn’t let the lack of action on Thursday postpone their special activities planned for the seniors.
At 6 p.m., the Trinity tennis team, along with the families of the seniors, gathered in the cafeteria to celebrate senior night.
The four seniors — Rebekah Brown, Regan Cain, Katelyn Mensendiek and Erin Enzinger — were front and center for head coach Julie Lemming and teammates to present them with gifts.
First was a flower to represent the beauty each senior possesses inside and out, said Lemming.
Then they were given a tennis-themed cookie, which represented sweetness. A key chain foreshadowed the adventures all of them will take after graduation, and a gift bag represented a token of gratitude from their coaches and teammates, handed out in a bag that read, “positive vibes only.”
“It was just nice to be with family and friends,” Rebekah Brown said.
Brown’s plan post-graduation is to go into nursing, starting out at Ivy Tech.
Right now, Brown is a part of the two doubles team. She’s been a four-year player with the Cougars, and she started playing varsity during her sophomore season.
Brown and fellow senior Erin Enzinger started teaming up two matches ago, and they are 2-0 as a tandem this season.
“I love working with her,” Brown said. “If you get down on yourself she’s always there to hype you up.”
Brown prefers playing back and lets Enzinger do her damage at the net.
“I would say about Bekah is she is mature beyond her years,” Lemming said.
Something that makes Brown and Enzinger good partners is they try to make light of most situations, even if they lose a point in the match.
“The wins come from having fun and moving past mistakes easily,” Enzinger said. “We both just kind of joke about it. We make jokes, like sometimes Bekah jokes about having dinosaur arms, and I’m like, ‘yeah, me too.’ But we also give each other advice.”
Enzinger is a multi-sport athlete who played soccer in the fall. She started out the season at number three singles, but she said she’s been really excited she’s got to play doubles the past couple of matches.
After she gradates, she’s going to Purdue Polytechnic Columbus to study computer information technology.
“She does everything I ask of her with a smile on her face,” Lemming said of Enzinger. “It’s been fun to see her evolve this season. She went to being a JV player to an accomplished varsity player.”
The third senior on doubles is Katelyn Mensendiek, who moved up to number one doubles this year after starting out the season at number two. Mensendiek started playing varsity her freshman year and has played on it every year since.
She was actually doubles partners with Brown during his sophomore year, but they took the initiative this year to pitch a change to Lemming.
“Since we had Drew (Hubbard) and Kiley (Zabel), they’re freshman and they had never played tennis before, they both had different abilities. One of them was a good back player, one of them was a good net player,” Mensendiek said. “So, it’d be easy if we (Mensendiek and Brown) split up, so we have a better shot at winning both doubles points.”
Mensendiek has been huge in helping Zabel develop into a solid tennis player this season. The two picked up a huge win against Jennings County’s Hannah Green and Cassidy Mull 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 a couple weeks ago, a win that no one expected them to pull off.
“We fought and fought,” Mensendiek said. “It definitely boosted our confidence.”
After graduation, Mensendiek plans to head to Purdue University in West Lafayette to study veterinarian nursing.
“Katelyn is a quiet leader, super positive attitude,” Lemming said. “I’ve watched her skillset grow the last couple of years, and we’re really gonna miss her. She’s been an anchor for us in the doubles position, and I was really glad she took on freshman this year to help them grow.”
Last but not least is the lone senior that plays singles for the Cougars, and that’s Regan Cain.
Cain is a tenacious competitor, once losing her shoe during a volley but still managed to win the point. Brown stated that as one of her favorite memories during her career, seeing a one-shoe Cain battle for a point.
Cain has made strides during her career, focusing a lot on the mental side of things to keep her composure during matches at two singles.
“I have to focus on not getting so frustrated at myself,” Cain said. “I definitely had to improve on that this year.”
Lemming said she uses Cain as a measuring stick for the other team. If Cain struggles at two singles, it means Trinity is competing against a rather talented team, which speaks volume to the caliber player Cain is.
After she’s done playing tennis and graduates, she wants to go to school in Florida for elementary education. The two top schools Cain is looking at right now are Florida Gulf Coast and Florida Southwestern.
“She is super entertaining,” Lemming said. “She keeps me on my toes because she’s super independent and she keeps things on track. She’s very competitive. She’s consistent, which has been helpful to our team.”
In addition to the gifts the seniors were given on Thursday, they were also given a cake with all of their names on it. The group decided to split up into two and feed each other the cake like married couples do at weddings.
Everyone was happy they got to celebrate those four on Thursday as they have been a fun group of seniors for the Cougars, who as a team have progressed throughout the season.
“We’ve bonded together a lot,” Cain said. “We just have a lot of fun together. I just love hanging out with my team and we want the best for each other.”