In building a 17-2 overall and 7-0 DAC record, Chesterton No. 1 singles player Kenzie Kania used the same mental advantage that ranks her second in her class to move opponents to exhaustion as they chased the ball all over the court

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Seeing Kenzie Kania play tennis is a lot like watching her Chesterton senior classmate Troy Barrett attack batters from the mound.
There are athletes who bring more heat than the DAC’s best tennis player and best pitcher, but not any who can make opponents look as powerless and uncertain in trying to make anything out of what they’re being served.
Kania has her opponents moving around so much that she seldom leaves them with any shot at responding with authority because of her ability to place the ball so precisely. When they do make contact, it’s usually not that flush, rather defensive plays designed to get the ball back over the net.
She makes opponents chase the ball all over the court, the way hitters chase Barrett’s unpredictable offerings.
When she’s dictating the match, it’s much easier for Kania to know where the next shot coming at her will be than it is for the opponent she sends moving all over the court to do the same. She eventually leaves them huffing and puffing as she conserves her energy by taking far fewer steps.
The No. 2 ranked student in the Class of 2026, behind only MIT-bound Jany Zhang, Kania didn’t find her way to the top of her conference in tennis. It took the smarts to arrive at a plan, the discipline to execute it, and an open mind to adjust along the way.
“She’s such a good defender, but in the last year-and-a-half, she’s really improved her offensive game,” Chesterton coach Tom Bour said. “So, once she gets the lead, she can put that opponent away a little quicker, rather than just staying out there and seeing who cannot make an error.”
Every year, she set about trying to expand her offensive repertoire in very specific ways. As a freshman, Kania formed the No. 1 doubles tandem with Aubrey Isakson, won the No. 1 singles spot as a sophomore and has risen to No. 1 in the conference, recently avenging a junior year loss to Lake Central’s Nora Karr by defeating her in straight sets. Kania finished the regular season 17-2 overall and 7-0 in the DAC.
In listening to Kania explain her offensive progression plan, again, it’s easy to envision a pitcher perfecting his craft.
“Freshman year, I feel like it was more just kind of getting the ball back and being more consistent about getting it back,” Kania said. “And then sophomore year, it was kind of just dictating, like, almost the side of the court to go, when I would, say, not hit to the backhand or not hit it to the forehand, stuff like that. And then, last year, I would hit more like chip shots and whatnot, like shorter shots, going deep and then going short and moving them forward and back a lot.”
So, by then she had them moving side to side and back and forth. She concluded it was time to make changing speeds a big part of the equation.
“This year, I feel like I’m trying to combine all of them a little bit,” she said. “So now it’s applying power when I’m going to hit it deep and then not applying power when I want to hit it short and then still moving them side to side as I do that.”
Part of her joy in playing the game is making decisions shot by shot.
“It definitely does,” make it more fun, she said. “You pick and choose where you want to move the person and then you kind of just watch them move around the whole time. You run there, I can do this. You run here, I can do that. So it’s kind of like controlling them and they get worn out after a while and then you can just ease your way through it after that.”
That at least partially explains her tendency to gain momentum the deeper she gets into a match: “I'll run probably half as much as they do if I move the ball well.”
The plan goes awry when her opponent has the athleticism to keep up with her shots and the power to put her on the defensive. Kania encountered just such a foe and lost to Libby Yergler 6-3, 6-2 in an early season match vs. South Bend St. Joseph.
“She's pretty powerful, so I really had to focus on getting it back, or if I was going to a spot, it had to be almost like a perfect shot to that spot to keep her on edge, so she wouldn't hit it as powerfully,” Kania said.
Rather than just resign herself to being the lesser player, Kania studied Yergler to figure out where her vulnerabilities lie. The conclusion she arrived at was one similar to a pitcher following a scouting report that advises to climb the ladder of the strike zone, up and down.
A less windy day than the first time would give Kania a better chance to execute those shots with more precision.
“I had to, like, change up the way I hit it vertically. So, if I put more spin on it, it would bounce higher. If I put less spin, it would bounce lower,” she said. “She had a problem going really high or really low, but if I hit it right in the perfect pocket, she got it. So I was trying to do that a little bit, which I haven't practiced a whole lot in years past. But this year, I have a little bit.”
It didn’t result in an upset victory, but it’s a safe bet Kania has worked all season on perfecting those high and low shots in the event Chesterton wins the sectional and faces St. Joe, a perennial state championship contender, in the regional round.
Bour called her win against LC’s Karr one of her smartest matches of the year in winning 6-4, 6-3 a year after losing to her in three sets.
“Her opponent is very, very talented, a very heavy hitter, a hard hitter, one of the best players in the region,” Bour said. “Kenzie just kept hitting balls back, hitting balls back, being patient. And that girl never changed her game at all. She stayed back in the red the entire time, trying to hit the ball by Kenzie and that’s not going to happen. So, the gameplan there was keep getting balls back, be aggressive when you’re given the opportunity. And Kenzie just outworked her and that girl’s mental game was not very strong and Kenzie fed off of that.”
Wherever Kania fell short physically against the powerful opponent didn’t keep her from more than compensating mentally.
“The girl she was playing had several questionable calls and her attitude was bad and it can be easy for other players to get caught up in that, start worrying about all those bad calls and start worrying about her attitude,” Bour said. “But no, Kenzie just kept her head down. Man, it was impressive to watch. I think she was just a little bit more determined, had a little bit more belief than the other girl.”
The blend of a strong mind, quiet confidence and unremitting determination that made her the student body president, ranked No. 2 in her class and the best tennis player in the DAC figure to serve her well in meeting her goals beyond high school.
Kania has gained admission into Indiana University’s prestigious Kelley School of Business.
She said her career goal is to own her own company, so even before having any clue what the product might be, she plans to learn everything she possibly can about running a business. Given how high she has ascended in academics, sports and extracurricular activities at her high school, only a fool would bet against her accomplishing her goal of owning a business and a successful one at that.