Seaman High School tennis' Grace Unruh and Lauren Sweeney have sights set on state with 32-0 doubles record

The doubles team of Seaman senior Grace Unruh and junior Lauren Sweeney is heading into tennis states with an undefeated 32-0 record.

They’ve secured back-to-back City, League and Regional titles in their second year as a duo.

After Unruh’s sophomore year and Sweeney’s freshman year, their coach at the time told them at the end-of-year banquet that the two would be playing together.

They proceeded to go 32-3 the next year, finishing fourth at state.

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Unruh and Sweeney have known each other since middle school but became closer during Sweeney’s freshman year.

Sweeney was a singles player in the first part of her freshman year before moving to doubles while Unruh has played doubles all four years of high school.

Sweeney said the chemistry was there right away, being close outside of tennis first and then teaming up on the tennis courts.

“I knew Lauren for awhile, how she played,” added Unruh. “Knowing so far in advance we’d be together was huge. That gave us nine months to work together and just grow and mesh our styles together.”

Unruh and Sweeney are both competitors, but when asked about their success in their first year teaming up, state wasn’t necessarily an implicitly stated goal.

But they did have the mentality of knowing they were a solid team and could compete with anyone, something that’s carried over into this season.

They credit former head coach Andrew Gill for last year's success.

“He always believed in us and told us we were that top team, the team to beat,” said Unruh. “He built up our confidence and gave us so much room to work with this year.”

“It was huge,” added Sweeney.

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Continuing to get better

Heading into their last year as a duo, one of the main focus’ this offseason was communication.

That’s not to say they weren’t communicating on the court, but this year, it become a lot more strategy based with a focus on good decision making.

“I would say compared to last year, we're just smarter,” said Sweeney. “On a big point, if we're down 30-40 or whatever, we're not going to go for that big shot. We're gonna get it to deuce. We're way smarter about that stuff.”

First-year head coach Jamie Robinson said he’s never seen them out of position on the court, crediting the two for knowing each other well and just being smart tennis players.

Unruh said their attitudes have changed as well, being more even keeled emotionally and not letting things get to them as much.

Sweeney said they’re still hard on themselves, but they’re much better at how they express it this year.

All but three of their matches have been convincing wins. The closest matches came against 4A McPherson (8-6) at the Salina Central Invite on Sept. 11 and 6A Free State (8-6) and 6A Blue Valley Northwest (8-6) in Emporia on Sept. 25.

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Those wins stood out to the players and their coach.

“They’re (undefeated) because they deserve it,” said Robinson. “It’s not by luck.”

“It was good to have the Salina Central tournament early,” said Unruh. “It boosted our confidence early on to play good teams and be able to play how we did.”

“The Emporia tournament we played, those two matches, Free State and Blue Valley Northwest — those were really good matches,” said Sweeney on what matches stood out to her. “They tested us, both of them we were down. It showed we can fight back and showed what we can do.”

Their coach said they match up against some good teams.

“They were resolute. They didn’t panic. They didn’t press,” said Robinson. “They waited for their shots, raised their level of tennis, came back and won.

“That Blue Valley West match was a thriller. Probably one of the highest quality high school matches I've ever seen.”

Heading into regionals, the mindset was to bring energy and aggression while competing and showing other teams what they could do. And they did just that.

After a first-round bye, they beat seniors Ariah Durkes and Shelby Elskamp (9-14) from Shawnee Heights (6-0, 6-0) in the quarterfinals, seniors Paige Devena and Bella LeJuerrne (17-9) from Shawnee Heights (7-5, 6-2) in the semifinals and juniors Lillee Frank and Kaitlyn Velasquez, of Emporia, in the finals (6-0, 6-0) to finish first overall and qualify for states.

Now, they’ll head into states looking to improve on their fourth-place finish from last year.

Before a match, you can see them going through their pre-game rituals.

And while they can’t share all of them, some include Unruh doing Sweeney’s hair, a chant they both do and even smaller things like fist bumping when switching to serve.

Regardless of what happens at state, Unruh and Sweeney will always have these years teaming up on the courts to look back on.

“We have so much fun playing together,” said Unruh. “Lauren’s my best friend. It’s been a blast.”

“It’s so much fun, just our bond and chemistry together,” said Sweeney. “We have so much fun. High school tennis is one of the best seasons.”

Other Topeka-area teams

Last Friday and Saturday, other regional action included more Topeka-area tennis teams that saw multiple players advanced to states this weekend with the top six singles and top six doubles finishers at each regional tournament qualifying for states.

6A at Kossover Tennis Courts

Washburn Rural placed first overall among the nine teams with 22 points with Manhattan (19) and Topeka High (7) rounding out the top three.

Washburn Rural: In singles, senior Sheridan Wichman (25-4) and sophomore Mena Dimarzio (16-5) qualified for states.

After a first-round bye, Wichman won her next three matches before falling to Manhattan's Jill Harkin (1-6,0-6) in the finals.

Dimarzio won her opening match, lost in the next round but bounced back in the losers bracket by beating Junction City's Abby Ratts (6-1, 6-0) to finish in fifth place.

In doubles, Rural finished first and second, qualifying two duos for states.

Juniors Katherine Fritz and Meredith Kucera (22-4) had a first-round bye before winning their next three matches and defeating teammates Hailey Beck and Shelby Schmutzler (24-2) in the finals (6-3, 6-4).

Topeka High: Topeka High is sending two duos to states, with the junior duo of Adisyn Caryl and Hailey Carpenter (22-7) placing fourth overall while senior Mary Dietrick and sophomore McCall Beall (12-4) placed sixth.

Caryl and Carpenter would fall to Fritz and Kucera in the semifinals and fell to Manhattan's Ava Bahr and Hannah Loub in the losers bracket to finish fourth.

Dietrick and Beall won their opening match before falling to Beck and Schmutzler in the quarterfinals.

In the losers bracket, they won their first match before falling to Manhattan's Eric Craft and Jessica Zhang to place sixth.

5A at Seaman High School

Seaman placed first overall among the eight teams with 20 points, Shawnee Heights placed second with 10 points and Emporia finished third with nine points.

Seaman: Two individuals qualified for states with Nina Del-Zio (25-9) and Katie Krummins (24-11) placing first and second.

Del-Zio beat Freedom Vann, of Highland Park, (6-0, 6-0) in the opening round, Sarah Lawless, of Basehor-Linwood, (6-0, 6-0) in the second round, Anna Newcome, of Topeka West, (6-0, 6-2) in the third round and Krumins in the finals (6-4, 6-1)

Krumins beat Victoria Soto, of Shawnee Heights, in her first match (6-0, 6-0), Reece Baker, of Leavenworth, (6-0, 6-1) in the second round and Bella Zarata, of Basehor-Linwood, (6-1, 6-2) before falling to Del-Zio in the finals

Shawnee Heights: In singles, senior Laura El-Koubysi (13-9) finished fifth to qualify for states.

El-Koubysi beat Hannah Payne, of Leavenworth, (6-0, 6-1) in the opening round before falling to Anna Newcome, of Topeka West, (6-3, 6-0).

In the losers bracket, she beat Sarah Lawless, of Basehor-Linwood, (3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 7-4) and Reece Baker, of Leavenworth, (6-1, 7-6, 7-2) to finish fifth.

The duo of Devena and LeJuerne qualified for states with a third-place finish.

They beat sophomores Courtney Manner and Emma Lowe, of Leavenworth, the opening round (6-1, 6-0) before falling to Unruh and Sweeney in the next round but bounced back with 7-5, 6-4 win over senior Brooke Collins and Clarice Langfoss (19-5), of Leavenworth, to secure the third-place finish.

Topeka West: Topeka West senior Anna Newcome (15-20) qualified for state with a third-place finish.

First, she beat Jayden Birk, of Emporia, (6-0, 6-0), next she beat Laura El-Koubysi, of Shawnee Heights, (6-3,6-0) before falling to Del-Zio in the semi-finals (6-0, 6-2). But she bounced back for the third-place finish with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Bella Zarate, of Basehor-Linwood.

4A at Kossover Tennis Courts

Hayden placed first at the Hayden HS Regional with 20 points, tied with Bishop Miege as Wamego, 9, and Ottawa, 7, rounded out the top three teams.

Hayden: In singles, freshman Ainzley Zuletta (31-5) rolled to a first-place finish in singles, with straight set wins against Alyssa Kelleyand Emma Kerley, of Paola, before defeating Lauren Myers (6-0, 6-1), of Bishop Miege, in the finals to secure the first-place win.

In doubles, the duo of sophomore Lauren Sandstrom and Emiley Sheetz (27-6) took first overall. After a first-round bye, they defeated Emma Cain and Gracie Howard, of Ottawa, and Emma Lazarczyk and Emily Lynn, of Bishop Miege, in straight sets before defeating Livi Shull and Claire Winklhofer, also of Bishop Miege, in the finals (6-0, 6-1)

Juniors Briaha Barnett and Sloane Sims (21-14) also qualified for states with a third-place finish.

First, they beat Sydney Smith and Chloe Thomas, of Hiawatha, (6-1, 6-0), then they beat Maya Gallagher and Rebekah Jones (6-0, 6-5), of Wamego.

They would fall to Shell and Winklhofer (1-6, 1-6), but secured their trip to states with a 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-1 win over Lazarczyk and Lynn to finish third.

Contact Seth Kinker at skinker@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @SethKinker.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Seaman High School tennis duo has sights set on a state title