K-State tennis ready to serve up season with new blood

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Sophomore-then Maria Panaite prepares to send the ball back over the net on Feb. 11, 2015 at Body First Tennis and Fitness Center. Overall the Wildcats beat MSU 5-1. (File Photo by Rodney Dimick | The Collegian)

Last season, an upset against Big 12 tennis regular season champion Baylor University stood between a return visit to the Big 12 tournament semifinals but the Bears were too much for K-State.

“It’s good for us to face the best in the conference because it shows me and the team where we need to be and what we need to work on to be able to challenge to be the best in the league and in the country,” K-State head coach Danielle Steinberg said to K-State Sports in April. “We have a long way to go but I think we made a big step forward this week and hopefully we can build on it going into the offseason and into next year.”

Steinberg heads into the 2015-16 season returning with seven players from last year’s team with two new additions in freshmen Millie Stretton and Ana Garcia Navas.

Stretton comes to K-State from Edinburgh, Scotland, where she is ranked as the No. 2 player.

“We are very excited to add Millie to our family; not only is she an established player, she is very hungry and motivated to work hard and get better,” Steinberg said to K-State Sports.

Garcia Navas joins the Wildcats from Valencia, Spain where she was ranked as high as No. 38 and won the Valencia Regional U18 tournament in 2013 and finished second in 2014.

The Wildcats begin the fall portion of their season at the Oklahoma Fall Invite on Sept. 24.

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Tim Everson was born in Wichita, KS in 1994. Before fifth grade he moved up to Manhattan for one year before settling in Riley, KS where he graduated from Riley County High School in 2012. Tim has worked for the Collegian since spring of 2014 and took over as Sports Editor during the summer of 2015. Tim loves sports, music, movies and good food when he can get it.