Junior Kenzie Kania carries extra pressure as Chesterton’s most experienced singles player and carries it well in helping Trojans to 4-1 victory at Valparaiso

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Back when Kenzie Kania’s parents enrolled their 5-year-old daughter in tennis lessons, they didn’t worry about it costing them money because they figured it just might save them more than it cost them in home repairs.
“My aunt gave me a kid’s tennis racket to play with as an Easter present or something like that,” Kenzie recalled. “I took it out one day and I started hitting against the garage door and then I was hitting it so hard that my family came out and said, ‘You’re hitting it way too hard. We’ve got to get you signed up for lessons. We don’t want you to dent the garage door, so we’ll get you lessons.’”
That ended her brief career as a garage door blaster and started her on a path to high school tennis stardom. A junior, Kania is in her second year as Chesterton’s No. 1 singles player.
In younger years, she played basketball, soccer and softball too. A right-handed thrower and left-handed hitter, she was a pitcher and a third baseman.
“I play with my right hand, and I write with my left hand, so I’ve always been almost ambidextrous,” Kania said.
That helps in tennis, as does the natural power she demonstrated rattling the garage door, and the quick feet that came in handy playing basketball and soccer. Her tennis game is as versatile as were her early sports years. Now she plays just tennis.
“Kenzie’s an all-court player,” Chesterton coach Tom Bour said, then explained. “That means she can stay on the baseline all day. She can also come to the net all day. She’s got all the shots. She’s got heavy spin. She’s got power. She’s got finesse.”
And on Tuesday afternoon at Valparaiso, she had a puzzle to solve. Athletic opponent Avi Geiner did an amazing job of returning shots that Kania fired at her from all over the court, a test of Kania’s patience. It took Chesterton’s No. 1 player a while to prevail, but she outlasted Geiner, 7-5, 6-1 and the Trojans won the match, 4-1. Freshman Kendall Gallion won her No. 3 singles match, 7-5, 2-6, 6-1 and the two doubles “beasts,” as Bour calls them, won their matches. The No. 1 team, Aleksa Sorgic and Ameila Smith, defeated their opponents, 6-1, 6-3 to run their record to 6-1. Lauren Pilarski and Anisa Faroh improved to 7-0, winning 6-0, 6-0.
Bour has stacked his doubles teams this year, which means even if they consistently win, the Trojans still need to score a point in one of their three singles matches. Since Kania is by far the most experienced singles player, that puts the pressure squarely on her. If Bour didn’t think Kania had the right mindset to handle that, he wouldn’t put her in that situation.
She handled it well Tuesday by staying on point.
“She was very fast,” Kania said of Geiner, a junior. “She got to everything. It was crazy.”
Bour credited Kania with “dictating the points,” of which many were long ones by keeping her opponent on the run.
“It was close, but I think we wore her down at the end,” Bour said.
If both players had been wearing a pedometer, Geiner’s would have had a much higher steps total.
“That’s the goal,” Kania said. “You have to make them move and wear them down eventually.”
That’s how it played out and once Kania got on a roll, the points came more quickly. The two players whose styles make for an interesting match might meet again. The sectionals are on Valpo’s courts, May 20 to 22. Boone Grove, Kouts, Wheeler and Portage also are in the six-school field.
Kania ran her record at No. 1 singles to 7-2, her losses coming vs. South Bend St. Joseph and Penn.
The Trojans opened DAC play last Thursday with a 4-1 win at LaPorte and welcome Portage to their courts Thursday at 4:15 p.m.