The Lincoln Southwest Boys Reserve and Junior Varsity tennis teams kicked off their season with a win, beating the Lincoln Southeast Knights with a score of 5-4 (JV) and 7-2 (Res.) at home on Thursday, Aug. 23.

“We played really well,” Reserve player freshman Ethan Liphardt said. “A lot of the games were pretty close, but we only lost two out of the nine we played. There wasn’t much pressure because our coach prepared us really well, and we all knew what we had to go do.”

Liphardt predicted that Southwest would be able to beat most of the schools this season, but North Star will cause the team the most trouble because they gave last year’s team a very tough match. Liphardt has high hopes for his team in terms of state championships.

“If we don’t (win) this year, we have a lot of incoming freshmen that have good potential,”  Liphardt said.

JV player, junior Blake Benson, has been on the team since he was a freshman, and is excited about his start to the season.

“The energy is good, people really like being there, so that makes it even better. I’m not nervous, but our biggest competition is probably East. There’s kind of, (pressure on his team) because they want me to do good, but it’s just fun.”

The JV team will have their next game against East on Tuesday, Aug. 28, at East’s tennis courts, and the Reserve team’s next meet is also against East on Wednesday, Aug. 29 at Southwest. The Varsity team will have their season opener against Creighton Prep, Lincoln Southeast, and Millard North at Koch Tennis Center on Saturday, Aug. 25.