Perfect Season: North’s Wilson is The Republic Girls Tennis Player of the Year

Kathryn Wilson has firmly etched herself among the girls tennis elite.

Wilson had one of the most successful seasons in Columbus North history by capping off her junior season with a state singles title. She also received many postseason accolades following the season and is The Republic Girls Tennis Player of the Year.

Wilson’s love for tennis started when she first picked up a racket at about 3 years old. When she was 6, she played in her first tennis tournament. She ended up winning that tournament, ultimately, setting the stage for much future success.

It also has helped that tennis is in her blood. Wilson comes from a strong family background in tennis. Her mother Mary Beth was a tennis player at Purdue, and her sister Ashlie recently wrapped up her freshman season for the Boilermakers.

Wilson credits her mother and sister for helping her pave the way and following in their footsteps.

On the court this year, Wilson was unstoppable. In reality, she’s been almost unstoppable the past three years. She went a perfect 22-0 at No. 2 singles and 1-0 at No. 1 singles as a freshman, 22-0 at No. 2 singles and 1-1 at No. 1 singles as a sophomore and 30-0 at No. 1 singles this year, when she reached the summit by winning the state singles title.

In the state quarterfinals, Wilson defeated West Lafayette Harrison’s Emmu Gu in straight sets. She defeated Fishers’ Mischa Briggs in straight sets in the semifinals before winning a three-set thriller against 2021 state singles champ Molly Bellia of South Bend St. Joseph in the final.

As much as Wilson was excited to be there, she knew what the stage, the atmosphere and the competition was going to be like after seeing her sister compete at that level last year. It only fueled her to work that much harder and make that reality happen. Mission accomplished.

“I wasn’t really sure how it was going to go, but I was definitely confident. I worked really hard, so I felt like that I knew it was going to be good, but I didn’t realize it’d be this good,” Wilson said. “I wanted to be more confident in myself and what I can do because at times where I was not confident, I wasn’t really excited to go out and play tennis. For me, it was all about, ‘Yes, I’m excited to be here and ready to go.’”

Wilson picked up several awards for her success on the court this year. She was named to the First-Team Singles All-State team and All-District 8 honors in singles by the Indiana High School Tennis Coaches Association. She was named First-Team All-State in singles by the Indiana Coaches of Girls Sports Association.

Wilson also earned All-Conference Indiana honors and won the Most Valuable Player and Bull Dog awards at the team’s end of the season banquet last week.

By winning the state singles title, she becomes the second champion in school history joining Caroline Hedrick, who won in 2008.

“She’s worked hard for it. She’s hit tons of balls with a lot of different people that’s helped her develop her game to where she is today,” North coach Kendal Hammel said. “She believes in herself. She will not give up. She never doubts herself. She will go out there and play to the very end. At the beginning of the year, she felt like she could win the state, so she did the things she had to do to get herself better, not only physically but mentally to believe that she can do that.”

As much as Wilson saw success individually, the team also performed well. The Bull Dogs finished the season 19-5 and won the regional title.

“We didn’t think be as good as we were last year. We ended up pretty good,” Wilson said. “It’s really encouraging to see everyone being super excited for all the matches and really working hard. We ended up (ranked) sixth in the state, so that was really good for us.”

Last week, Wilson kept up with the family tradition and made her college commitment to Purdue. She will be reunited with her sister, but that will have to be put on hold for now.

Wilson has her senior year still to come. Obviously, her goal heading into next season is repeating as the state champion. She knows she will become the hunted, and her opponents in the state finals competition likely won’t change drastically. As much as she’ll be hungry to win, her opponents will be even hungrier to beat her.

In order for her to repeat as champion, Wilson said she needs to be more aggressive, mentioning she was a “pusher” growing up. In tennis, a pusher is a person playing more conservatively without deliberately hitting winners constantly and wearing down the opposition.

“It’s going to be more aggressive and trying to take more control of the points earlier,” Wilson said. “It’s really hard to win against good people like that, so taking control of the points early and being more aggressive.”

The Republic All-Area Girls Tennis team:

Kathryn Wilson, Columbus North: The junior went 30-0 at No. 1 singles and won the singles state title.

Aya Saad, Columbus North: The sophomore went 24-3 at No. 2 singles.

Annabelle Sun, Columbus North: The sophomore went 16-4 at No. 2 singles and 6-1 at No. 1 doubles.

Lucy Bergman, Columbus North: The freshman went 4-2 at No. 3 singles and 5-15 at No. 1 doubles.

Grace Conner, Columbus North: The sophomore went 9-18 at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles.

Tatum Brown, Jennings County: The junior went 11-11 at No. 1 singles and won a sectional singles title.

Lauren Degner, Columbus East: The freshman went 12-10 at No. 1 singles.

Anna Stogsdill, Brown County: The junior went 12-9 at No. 1 singles.

Katie Tipton, Brown County: The senior went 13-8 at No. 1 doubles.

Londyn Koester, Brown County: The senior went 13-8 at No. 1 doubles.

Bella Kilps, Hauser: The sophomore went 12-6 at No. 1 singles.

Drew Hubbard, Trinity Lutheran: The junior went 13-4 at No. 1 singles.

Honorable mention

Brown County: Anna Tipton. Columbus East: Shruthika Kumar, Katey Rieckers. Columbus North: Nino Akahalya, Siri Poludasu. Edinburgh: Jessica Walsh. Hauser: Charlie Clark. Jennings County: Kaydence Lowman. Trinity Lutheran: Siddha Hall.