MONROE — The Cheesemakers return just two letterwinners from their 2019 girls tennis team. Last season, Kylie Miller played No. 2 doubles with her sister, who has since graduated. Cecily Burch was the squad’s No. 4 singles player.

“We have a ton of new players this year,” said head coach Matt Bordner. “We lost a lot of seniors and losing a few other players who were expected to be in the varsity lineup due to COVID, and some overlap with other sports this spring. I expect some of our varsity lineup to be filled by JV players from last year, but we also have some athletes trying out tennis for their first time that could make a varsity impact.”

Bordner said Bre Giasson and Manal Mustafa area a couple of names that came to mind as newcomers that could make an impact.

“This season will be all about development and having fun. I think we are all just really excited to have the chance to play again, and so just enjoying the sport and learning and growing each day will be our main focus,” Bordner said. “We have a lot of younger players and inexperienced players, so getting them involved early and learning will be huge.”

Bordner said Burch will be the team’s No. 1 singles player, and while it will be a big jump from 4 to 1, Bordner said she’s done a lot of offseason training and is welcoming the challenge. Miller, meanwhile, will either be on the No. 2 doubles or high in the singles lineup, depending on how things shake out. He added that both players will be team captains, and he trusts that they will be great role models and mentors for the newer players. There are 26 players on the roster, including nine freshmen, five sophomores and 10 juniors. Monroe had just two seniors on the roster: Burch and Madeleine Wels.

“I think we will have strength in numbers. We have a solid 25 or so girls coming out, and that should lead to good competition in practices. We use a challenge system to move up and down the lineup, so finding players who rise up will be exciting,” Bordner said. “I think we also just have a really positive team culture established. While we won’t be as competitive as last year, I think we have a good system set up to build for the future. We only have a few seniors, so ideally we can build up our program this year for some stronger teams in the future.”

However optimistic that approach, Bordner is realistic in that his team will face some major challenges. Many players will be focused on learning the basics of the sport. Weather is just as uncontrollable. While a normal season runs from August into October, with temperatures between hot and mild, this year’s truncated, delayed season opens in March when the weather is less hospitable. The team must make sure the courts are cleared of snow to even step outside to play.

The Cheesemakers have six total dates for regular season competition — three home and three away.

“For our alternate season, I expect Monona Grove to be probably the top team. They have a really solid system set up with good coaching and development year after year. We won’t see Edgewood during the alternative season, and they are usually in the top of the conference,” Bordner said.