Youth serves for Homestead tennis

Jackie Egelhoff became head coach of the Homestead girls tennis program in 1980 and cannot recall having five freshmen on any of her varsity teams.

“I actually remember maybe three to four freshmen possibly back in the late '80s,” she said. “But I believe this is truly the youngest team we’ve had.”

The Highlanders have just one senior, too.

“I don’t remember that, either,” Egelhoff said. “I don’t believe I’ve ever had that situation.”

Despite its youth, Homestead not only qualified for the state team tournament this weekend, the Highlanders are 24-0 entering their quarterfinal match against Brookfield East at 5:30 p.m. Friday in Madison.

Girls state team tennis preview

“They all had to get used to my coaching techniques, but I also had to get to know each one of these girls very quickly,” Egelhoff said. “The biggest help was Katya (Mikhailenko) as our senior and captain. She said she learned it as a freshman, how the upperclassmen took her under their wing.

"She felt that responsibility coming into the season and really did a terrific job educating the girls and motivating them, making them a team.”

There were weekly team dinners, attending Homestead’s football games as a group, an occasional organized sleepover, and even an outing to make blankets.

“I’ve been on the team for four years and I’ve had my share of drama that comes with 14-year-olds spending too much time with each other, but I think that this year was definitely one of the better years,” Mikhailenko said. “I don’t think we honestly had any drama, and I think it’s just because everyone had really positive attitudes and everyone was accepting of one another.”

Homestead’s singles lineup consists of Mikhailenko at No. 1 with three freshmen filling the other three flights.

“We knew we had three outstanding freshmen coming in who could potentially be in that position,” Egelhoff said. “At the beginning, we really weren’t sure who would be taking those positions. We had some challenge matches, rotated them briefly and decided on the lineup.”

The four singles players are a combined 133-11, with five of the losses coming at the individual state tournament last weekend.

Mikhailenko placed sixth at state and is 31-3. Andie Weise, who plays No. 2 singles, is 35-4 after finishing fourth. Natalie Young (No. 3 singles) is 35-2 after advancing to the second round and Jamie Gebhardt (No. 4) owns a 32-2 mark.

“Katya is a really good captain,” Weise said. “She just made my freshman year even better. She takes charge and makes sure everyone knows what to do, that everyone is comfortable with each other.

“It’s proved to work.”

There are only two freshmen playing doubles, but there is also one new player to the Homestead program.

Junior Frankie La Londe transferred from Cedarburg as a singles player but teamed with freshman Sasha Shapsis at No. 1 to take third at state with a 31-2 record.

At No. 2, junior Alyssa Boyer paired with freshman Bridget Brown to reach the third round at state (29-7), and junior Helen Watkins and sophomore Grace Crowley play No. 3 (29-5).

But as Homestead tries for its first state title since 2012, even Egelhoff was not expecting an undefeated season.

“Not exactly at the beginning,” she said. “Pretty early on you could see we had depth. That’s what you need to be successful."