From the Capital-Journel:
Alivia Sherer dabbled in tennis a little bit when she was growing up, but the sport really didn’t pique her interest until two years ago.
And once it did, she was hooked. It was the sport she wanted to pursue in high school. One problem. Sherer is a freshman at Rossville and that school had never fielded a tennis program.
“I just do tennis,” she said. “Over the summer I do drills, so the whole idea was I would just keep doing drills and wait to see what happened.”
What happened was something the Sherer family has been trying to finalize for a couple years. Rossville entered a co-op agreement with Hayden, allowing Sherer to practice and play for the Wildcats during the season.
Sherer took full advantage of the opportunity and when it came time to compete on her own for Rossville at last week’s Class 3-2-1A regional at Hillsboro, it paid off. Sherer became Rossville’s first-ever state tennis qualifier, placing sixth in singles at the regional.
Not many people can say they’ve accomplished a first at their high school. But Sherer can.
“It’s nice and I never really thought about it like that,” she said. “All these other sports always talk about getting to go to state and I never really thought that I am the first one. But I’m excited I get to go do it.”
The daughter of former Washburn player Jesse Sherer, who played for the Ichabods from 1993-97, Alivia wasn’t overly optimistic she would get the chance to play tennis this year after her family had unsuccessfully tried to get a co-op in place for her older brother, Alex, who is a junior at Rossville.
But once she found out it would happen, she was elated.
“I was so excited,” she said. “It was great to learn how everything was going to work.”
Sherer wasn’t alone. Rossville junior Peyton Price, daughter of Washburn assistant coach David Price, also opted to go out for tennis. The two commute every day to Topeka for practice with one of their parents chauffering them.
Jesse Sherer also serves as Rossville’s official coach after taking online training and testing. During the regular season, she was coached by Hayden coach Christy Sheetz, who said her program welcomed the Bulldawg duo with open arms.
“We as coaches, we’re all ambassadors for the sport and the entire Topeka tennis commmunity was so welcoming for this,” Sheetz said. “I’d talked to them about it over the summer and knew Jesse was involved in the tennis community here. So it was kind of a way to pay it back and keep the cycle going.
″(Sherer’s) had such a successful start for a freshman and has done an incredible job. She’s got a sweet and open personality and was so eager to join the team. It’s just been a real blessing and we’ve developed a strong relationship with these two girls.”
“It was kind of weird at first and I mostly talked to Marisol (Blair, a Hayden senior) since I knew her,” Sherer said. “But now I know everyone and we all get along really well.”
Sherer rotated at singles with Hayden’s top-two singles players Marisol Blair and Rhen Calhoon, and put together a 14-6 record during the regular season. She also played some doubles with Price with both playing singles at regionals.
“It was definitely different from what I would see in USTA,” Sherer said. “But it was nice seeing that competition and playing a lot of really good players. It made me a lot better, knowing how I need to move the ball more, use my angles more.”
Price was eliminated in her first match at regionals, while Sherer beat Perry-Lecompton’s Bailey Wheeler, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals. After falling 6-4, 6-1 to Smoky Valley’s Lena Rauchholz, she found herself in a tough spot when she lost the first set to Smoky Valley’s Isabella Wright 7-6 (8-6) in the match to qualify for state.
But she bounced back in a big way to clinch a state berth with a 6-1, 6-2 win in the next two sets. Sherer wound up falling in the fifth-place match to Wabaunsee’s Autymn Schreiner, a defacto Mid-East League championship match between the top singles players for the only two schools in the league with tennis.
“It was definitely nerve-wracking in the (match with Wright), losing that first set in a tiebreaker,” Sherer said. “We were both trying to make every point. I thought getting to state was possible and I just needed to fight.”
Sherer will take a 16-8 record to this weekend’s Class 3-2-1A state tournament in Prairie Village.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Sherer said. “Having my dad there coaching me will be great, too. I just want to do well and see how far I can get.”
