Six New Trier girls varsity tennis players competed at the IHSA Level 2A state championships, with junior Arianne Lesterhuis and senior Keri Rothenberg winning doubles for the second year in a row, sophomore Julia Ludwig and senior Coco Zabel placing top 10 in doubles, Ingrid Fielder placing sixth in singles, and Ava Katz finishing in top 12 for singles Oct. 24-26.
In the 2024-2025 tennis season, under the instruction of head coach Jerry Morse-Karzen, the New Trier Varsity Tennis team did not lose a dual match all year.
The team also won conference, sectionals, and then state on the second day of competition.
Entering the first round of the three-day state competition on Thursday at Hinsdale, Zabel was focused on the competition.
“We definitely were trying and being very aggressive to start,” Zabel said. “We actually warmed up for about 45 minutes that morning.”
Besides its 45-minute warmup, the team also had a more individualized practice where the six girls played many matches and concentrated on skill work.
“We started having [a] more focused practice,” Zabel said. “Then after we made it to state the weekend before…it was just the six of us, and we would stay out there until we felt good enough that day.”
The 45-minute warmup helped, as Zabel and her doubles partner Julia Ludwig won the first round 6-0, 6-0 and scored two points for New Trier.
Meanwhile, Lesterhuis and her partner Rothenberg also competed in the doubles tournament and played their first round.
“The first round was Hinsdale, one of our rival schools. It was an unusually good first round match [for us, considering] they were good competition,” Lesterhuis said. “But after winning, we felt a bit more comfortable.”
Lesterhuis and Rothenberg won their first match 6-1, 6-0, scoring 2 points for New Trier.
But, Lesterhuis and Rothenberg still had two rounds left to play that day.
“Obviously, the closer you get to the finals, the harder the rounds. We were definitely still nervous, but we knew what we had to do to win,” Lesterhuis said.
And they did, because Lesterhuis and Rothenberg won their second round 6-0, 6-0, scoring two points, and their third round 6-0, 6-2, scoring two points and a total of four points for New Trier.
Zabel and Ludwig also rose to the state challenge, winning their second round (6-0, 6-0) and scoring two points, and winning their third round (6-3, 6-1) and scoring two points again for New Trier.
After Thursday, New Trier scored a total of 22 points. Going into Friday, New Trier was still looking to win state and advance in the individual competitions. Both doubles teams were also set to compete in the quarterfinals.
“We wanted to stay aggressive and just be ready for every single point, and treat every point as our best point,” Zabel said.
Zabel and Ludwig lost the double’s quarterfinals 6-4, 6-2, and were eliminated from the championship bracket.
Now, only Lesterhuis and Rothenburg’s team was left as they entered the quarterfinals.
“I definitely think we played our best at state because it was needed. We had a goal to win and wanted to reach it,” Lesterhuis said.
Their best worked, as Lesterhuis and Rothenburg scored four points for New Trier by winning 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.
The team discovered it won the team state championships on Friday morning.
“We went out and earned it,” Morse-Karzen said. “The bottom line is…you can have a great season, you can get a nice seats going in, but you gotta go out and play, and they did.”
By the end of the day on Friday, New Trier scored 30 and was now ahead of its competition by 12 points.
The team’s success can also be attributed to the coaches.
Even though Coach Donna was not at the state competition because she was attending a wedding, Coach Donna was still able to encourage Lesterhuis through a phone call.
“It was very helpful hearing her words telling us that she believed in us,” Lesterhuis said.
Morse-Karzen uses the foundation of the New Trier Girls tennis program, the Trevian Triangle, in his coaching style.
In the Trevian Triangle, one of the defining qualities is that the team consists of good people.
“[We’re] nice and that’s how we treat others and how we treat anybody on the team. That’s how we wanna be known as,” Morse-Karzen said.
The other two qualities are the team works hard and they play to win but with the proper sportsmanship.
“No win is gonna feel any good if we act with the proper sportsmanship,” Morse-Karzen said.
Morse-Karzen even uses the Trevian Triangle in the team’s cheer before each match.
“He always says ‘we’re good people, we work hard, we play to win, we are New Trier,’’ Zabel said.
Later, the players, some of their parents, and the coaches celebrated at Panera before resting for the last part of state: the individual championships on Saturday.
On Saturday, after winning the semifinals 6-2, 6-2, and scoring 2 points for New Trier, the only competition left for Lesterhuis and Rothenburg was the title round.
As the title round consisted of three sets, it made the championship road rockier.
Lesterhuis and Rothernburg won their first set 6-3 but then lost their second set 3-6.
“We knew that [the competition] was going to get a lot harder and it was necessary to play our best,” Lesterhuis said. “We didn’t want to think that we just lost the second set. We just kept calm and just played.”
But, Lesterhuis and Rothenburg came back and won the final set 6-4, scoring two points for New Trier, and winning the doubles state championship for the second consecutive year.
“The doubles [win], I mean, that’s what I wanted this whole season. I’m really happy I made it happen,” Lesterhuis said.
Next year, Morse-Karzen wants to win state again and also continue to use the Trevian Triangle.
“Our goal is always one, we start with the Trevian Triangle, that’s one of the things we gotta establish…We’d love to win the state championship again,” Morse-Karzen said. “The key thing is that we just get maximum effort from everybody, but everybody gives me the best effort, you know, it’s hard to be unhappy with where we are…Give us a hunger, with an effort and all the time, and…we’re gonna be in a pretty good spot.”