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On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, Warsaw's No. 1 doubles team of Kara Kesler and Liza Weidenbenner are in the Warsaw Racquet Club practicing for Saturday's individual regional doubles competition.
Because the rest of the team was eliminated by Northridge in last week's team regional, Weidenbenner and Kesler are the only Warsaw players in the facility. Coach Jill Basden and a partner work with the pair to help prepare them for Saturday's competition.
"They are our dynamic duo," said Basden. "Together they have so much potential. This is their first year together and they have made it this far in the competition.
"It's hard to believe they are going on, but I am very excited for them."
Kesler, a sophomore, and Weidenbenner, a freshman, started playing together this year and knew they would face challenges from other more experienced doubles teams.
"It's intimidating to go in at No. 1 doubles," said Kesler. "We are both young, but I knew Liza was good and we would be able to play well together."
"There's a lot of pressure playing at No. 1 doubles," said Weidenbenner. "Other teams we played didn't know that we were not seniors. After we beat them they were really surprised to find out that I was a freshman and Kara was a sophomore."
"Many times they were mistaken for sisters," said Basden. "They got that a lot. They really don't act like sisters, at least not yet, anyway."
Although they have not lost a game since the postseason began, Weidenbenner and Kesler went through a slump in the middle of the season. In fact, the duo ended the regular season 7-7, but since the postseason began they have improved that mark to 11-7.
"We went into a slump in the middle of the season," said Kesler, "but we kept working at it and improved."
"It took them a while to get in the groove, but they have played well ever since," said Basden. "Their doubles game is very strong, but we began to wonder about them during the slump time."
One test of Warsaw's determination came against Wawasee's doubles pair of Laura Lundin and Steph Shivers. In the regular season, Weidenbenner and Kesler defeated the Wawasee squad in three sets, but at the NLC meet Lundin and Shivers defeated Warsaw in three sets.
Last Saturday in Elkhart, Kesler and Weidenbenner faced Lundin and Shivers yet again. This time, the Tigers came out on top of the Warriors in three sets to advance to the regional competition in Indianapolis Saturday.
"Wawasee is always a big match for us," said Kesler. "It's always fun to play them, but it felt good to win this weekend."
Now that the Tigers have advanced to the individual regional competition, the have turned their attention to New Prairie, their next opponent.
"Liza and I have beat good teams before," said Kesler. "I want to play well Saturday and make a good showing. I know only good teams make it this far, and I know we did our best to get here."
"We just want to play well from the beginning," said Weidenbenner. "If we can jump ahead of them from the start, we will have a good chance of moving on."
Weidenbenner and Kesler will face the No. 1 doubles team from New Prairie at 10 a.m. Saturday in Indianapolis at North Central High School.
