The Trinity Lutheran boys tennis team gathered in the school’s cafeteria last week to celebrate its 2022 season.

The Cougars finished above .500 when the season was all said and done at 11-10. Their season came to a close in the semifinals of sectional when they lost to Seymour 5-0.

The Cougars started out the season winning their first four matches, then had a lull in the middle of the season but then closed the regular season slate strong by picking up consecutive wins before the postseason.

Head coach Kable Walton handed out four individual awards at the team’s banquet.

The first was the Cougar Award, which is given to the player who demonstrates excellent sportsmanship and represents Trinity in every way possible on and off the court.

Jack Stuckwisch earned the Cougar Award. The freshman found himself playing No. 2 singles toward the end of the season. He compiled an overall record of 12-9.

The next award given out was the most improved player award. Walton gave that to Will Gausmann, who is a sophomore.

Gausmann was teammates with Max Peters at two doubles throughout the season, and the duo carried a record of 10-10. Gausmann made some of the best strides of anyone on the team from when the year started to when it finished.

The final two awards ended up going to the same individual. The most valuable player award went to Nathan Voelker, and so did the senior award.

Voelker was the only senior on the Cougars’ roster, and he played tennis all four years. Part of Voelker’s value to the team was his versatility.

He started the year playing singles but midway through switched to No. 1 doubles along with Jonathan Neawedde. Across all of his matches, Voelker had a record of 15-6 in 2022.

“We’ll miss Nathan dearly. He’s a big personality on the team,” Walton said.

But the bright spot of only having one senior is Trinity should have a good number of returning players for next season. Solomon Hall, who played No. 1 singles, was the only junior, and then there were two sophomores and five freshmen.

There will be a lot of returning talent and a lot of room for improvement for the Cougars next fall. Walton was extremely pleased with how the team performed this past season, and he’s even more excited for what Trinity tennis could look like in the coming seasons.

“I saw this year as a successful year for Trinity tennis,” Walton said. “I’m really proud of all the work the guys put in. We have a really young team. We’re really looking to come back and having a good showing next year. We have a lot of young guys, and we’re going to keep working.”