The Wampus Cat tennis teams had an eventful start to the 2023 season with 2 matches before the start of the school year!  The first match was a 4 team tournament in Searcy with Mountain Home, Jonesboro, and Searcy. Each varsity player played at least 3 matches. Trey Lemieux, Boys #1 singles, finished 3rd overall in the tournament and was the furthest Conway player to make it. Trey Lemieux told me, “I feel like I performed pretty well. It was different from our other matches because I played 4 times in 1 day.” 4 days later, the Cats traveled to Van Buren to face off against the Pointers. The Girls team swept the floor with Van Buren, winning all their matches, varsity and junior varsity! The Boys ended up losing 3 of the 4 varsity matches, the #2 doubles team, Will Schlientz and Landon Harvey, being the only victorious ones. Landon Harvey told me, “We played very well and very competitively. I wish all the boys teams won, but it still felt nice to be the only ones.” I also asked Cecilia McCarthy-Galvan about the match and she said, “I thought we played really good. We both didn’t double fault, which was a major first for me. It was very fun because all the girls were cheering each other on. I honestly think it was one of the best matches Catalina and I played all season.” The next 2 matches on the schedule were moved back due to heat. After a week-long break, the Cats traveled to Fort Smith to play Northside. Conway ended up winning every match against the Grizzlies! I asked Baylor Conley about the #1 boys doubles match and he responded with, “We played pretty in sync for the first time and gave it our full effort. I feel like the win gave us a lot of momentum for our upcoming matches.” The week after their win against Northside, the Cats had an away match against NLR and a home match against Cabot. It was a hot day in North Little Rock when the Cats faced off against the Charging Wildcats. The boys won all varsity matches including Trey Lemieux’s very exciting tiebreak finish. The Conway tennis team had an amazing start to the season.