Tipp eyes another huge tennis season

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Without question, the Tippecanoe girls tennis program has dominated the Miami Valley League ever since it began. With five returning starters out of seven spots, the Red Devils expect to keep the pressure on the rest of the league and have yet another successful season as the 2026 season is now underway.

“We should be pretty good again this year. We have a lot of returning depth coming back,” said Tipp coach Jack Romer. “I think we should be one of the top teams around Dayton.”

Two years ago, Tipp lost to Butler in the regular season, but with a strong tournament, the Red Devils won the overall MVL title. Last year, Tipp ran the table and cruised through the conference again. That is their first goal heading into the new season, keeping their tradition of being the top team in the league.

“We want to keep being consistent day in and day out,” Romer said. “We want to look at getting better and even though we are returning so many players, the other teams are getting better also.”

Having experience back is huge for the Tipp success this year, and Romer knows that will be a big factor.

“We have good leadership this year, we have more upperclassmen than younger players for the first time since I took over,” he said. “The girls need to support each other and be the best tennis players they can be.”

While the spots are not locked in as of this writing, Romer expects several athletes to compete for both singles and doubles spots.

Four juniors will lead the way with Maddie Lieber, Jillian Schroeder, Mary Waibel and Sydney Labreck, and will all be competing for the three singles spots. Senior Eleanor Spangler, who missed last year, will also be in the mix.

“That is five really good high level singles players, and two of them might even play doubles, Romer said. “We will have a deep singles roster this year.” The coach briefly broke down the strength of those five players.

“Maddie is very consistent and doesn’t miss,” he said. “Jillian has tremendous power with placement, Sydney is consistent and moves well on the court, Eleanor is a veteran and just knows how to win. Mary was a doubles player last year, so she moves well and has good hands at the net.”

Competing for doubles will include some of the singles players, while their second doubles team from last year, Samantha Kozen and Penny Bathgate, who were league champions.”