Carson Freeman is Key Player for Alton Boys Tennis Team, Serves as Redbirds' Captain

by Colin Feeney

published April 2 2019 6:03 AM

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ALTON – Senior player Carson Freeman is serving as a captain for Alton High’s tennis team for the 2019 season, and has played well in singles and doubles to start the season.

Freeman sees his role on the team as a captain who sets the examples for the younger players on the team, showing them how to do things during practices and matches that will help them become better players.

"I definitely play a role is leading the other players and showing them what they need to do, and what they need to do during practice," he said.

Freeman started playing tennis when he entered high school and has seen his own game grow despite having a late start in the game.

“I started playing tennis when I was in high school, so I would say I kind of got a late start,” Freeman said, “but I definitely played a lot, and my experience has grown. And this year, I play number one for the first time, so it’ll be a new experience playing all these other number ones, and seeing how the level goes and their type of play styles. I just want to see if grow, and hopefully, play in college, and see where it goes.”

Freeman is looking to play at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and plans to continue in the game for a long time.

“I’m going to Lewis and Clark, so I’d like to play at Lewis and Clark,” Freeman said, “and just play more schools, and I plan on playing tennis for the rest of my life, so to just extend it and get better.”

As far as goals for himself and the Redbirds, Freeman just wants to grow in the game and help his teammates play as well as they can.

“Just to grow,” Freeman said. “Just to grow. We kind of have a short team this season, but I just hope to make it more fun and get the levels going up, and to make everyone have fun.”

Carson Freeman is Key Player for Alton Boys Tennis Team, Serves as Redbirds' Captain

by Colin Feeney

published April 2 2019 6:03 AM

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ALTON – Senior player Carson Freeman is serving as a captain for Alton High’s tennis team for the 2019 season, and has played well in singles and doubles to start the season.

Freeman sees his role on the team as a captain who sets the examples for the younger players on the team, showing them how to do things during practices and matches that will help them become better players.

"I definitely play a role is leading the other players and showing them what they need to do, and what they need to do during practice," he said.

Freeman started playing tennis when he entered high school and has seen his own game grow despite having a late start in the game.

“I started playing tennis when I was in high school, so I would say I kind of got a late start,” Freeman said, “but I definitely played a lot, and my experience has grown. And this year, I play number one for the first time, so it’ll be a new experience playing all these other number ones, and seeing how the level goes and their type of play styles. I just want to see if grow, and hopefully, play in college, and see where it goes.”

Freeman is looking to play at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and plans to continue in the game for a long time.

“I’m going to Lewis and Clark, so I’d like to play at Lewis and Clark,” Freeman said, “and just play more schools, and I plan on playing tennis for the rest of my life, so to just extend it and get better.”

As far as goals for himself and the Redbirds, Freeman just wants to grow in the game and help his teammates play as well as they can.

“Just to grow,” Freeman said. “Just to grow. We kind of have a short team this season, but I just hope to make it more fun and get the levels going up, and to make everyone have fun.”

Carson Freeman is Key Player for Alton Boys Tennis Team, Serves as Redbirds' Captain

by Colin Feeney

published April 2 2019 6:03 AM

Listen to the story

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ALTON – Senior player Carson Freeman is serving as a captain for Alton High’s tennis team for the 2019 season, and has played well in singles and doubles to start the season.

Freeman sees his role on the team as a captain who sets the examples for the younger players on the team, showing them how to do things during practices and matches that will help them become better players.

"I definitely play a role is leading the other players and showing them what they need to do, and what they need to do during practice," he said.

Freeman started playing tennis when he entered high school and has seen his own game grow despite having a late start in the game.

“I started playing tennis when I was in high school, so I would say I kind of got a late start,” Freeman said, “but I definitely played a lot, and my experience has grown. And this year, I play number one for the first time, so it’ll be a new experience playing all these other number ones, and seeing how the level goes and their type of play styles. I just want to see if grow, and hopefully, play in college, and see where it goes.”

Freeman is looking to play at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and plans to continue in the game for a long time.

“I’m going to Lewis and Clark, so I’d like to play at Lewis and Clark,” Freeman said, “and just play more schools, and I plan on playing tennis for the rest of my life, so to just extend it and get better.”

As far as goals for himself and the Redbirds, Freeman just wants to grow in the game and help his teammates play as well as they can.

“Just to grow,” Freeman said. “Just to grow. We kind of have a short team this season, but I just hope to make it more fun and get the levels going up, and to make everyone have fun.”

Carson Freeman is Key Player for Alton Boys Tennis Team, Serves as Redbirds' Captain

by Colin Feeney

published April 2 2019 6:03 AM

Listen to the story

Share1

ALTON – Senior player Carson Freeman is serving as a captain for Alton High’s tennis team for the 2019 season, and has played well in singles and doubles to start the season.

Freeman sees his role on the team as a captain who sets the examples for the younger players on the team, showing them how to do things during practices and matches that will help them become better players.

"I definitely play a role is leading the other players and showing them what they need to do, and what they need to do during practice," he said.

Freeman started playing tennis when he entered high school and has seen his own game grow despite having a late start in the game.

“I started playing tennis when I was in high school, so I would say I kind of got a late start,” Freeman said, “but I definitely played a lot, and my experience has grown. And this year, I play number one for the first time, so it’ll be a new experience playing all these other number ones, and seeing how the level goes and their type of play styles. I just want to see if grow, and hopefully, play in college, and see where it goes.”

Freeman is looking to play at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey and plans to continue in the game for a long time.

“I’m going to Lewis and Clark, so I’d like to play at Lewis and Clark,” Freeman said, “and just play more schools, and I plan on playing tennis for the rest of my life, so to just extend it and get better.”

As far as goals for himself and the Redbirds, Freeman just wants to grow in the game and help his teammates play as well as they can.

“Just to grow,” Freeman said. “Just to grow. We kind of have a short team this season, but I just hope to make it more fun and get the levels going up, and to make everyone have fun.”

Tigers blank Redbirds in SWC Opener for Both Teams, Coach Lipe Also Notches Win No. 800

by Colin Feeney  and Dan Brannan

published March 20 2019 6:30 AM

updated March 20 2019 6:44 AM

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EDWARDSVILLE – The big news of the day from the Edwardsville Tennis Complex was that Edwardsville head tennis coach Dave Lipe reached a milestone that few will ever match - his 800th career win.

The other strongest point of Tuesday was his Tigers looked like they would be dominant once again in boys tennis with a 9-0 win over Alton in the Southwestern Conference opener for both teams.

As for the day, Lipe felt it was very good for the team to get its first win of the season and was also extremely proud of the 800th career win, focusing most of the attention on his players for their success.

“It feels good to get the first win of the season,” Lipe said. “That actually is more of a focus for me right now than any accumulated total of wins. So it feels good to hopefully begin to gain some confidence. We lost three matches over the weekend; two were especially tough to lose. And so, it just feels really great to start off 1-0 in the conference.

“This match was more significant for our lesser experienced players,” Lipe continued. “You know, we’ve got guys like Zach (Trimpe) and Seth (Lipe) and Drake (Schreiber) that have played a lot of matches. And for them, this match, it’s not as important for them as it was to four, five and six. Sam Motley got his first varsity win today, so I’m very happy for him. And I thought Nick (Hobin) and Ben (Blake) played well. And that our top three kids played like I thought they would, so overall, it was a good day for us. And I know that Alton graduated some good players last year.”

Alton head coach Bob Lowe felt that his team played very well against a very strong Edwardsville side.

“I thought we did pretty good against a really strong team,” Lowe said. “So, the kids competed well, and I thought it was a good day.”

Lowe is hoping that the Redbirds can finish in the upper half of the SWC this season, and to send one of his players to the IHSA state tournament in suburban Chicago this spring.

“Well, I hope we can finish in the top half of the conference,” Lowe said, “and hopefully, we can maybe send somebody to state, who knows? But we’ll find out.”

Alton’s top player will be senior Carson Freeman, and he’s joined by a very experienced supporting cast.

“Carson’s our number one, Sam Kane’s number two, really strong player,” Lowe said, “and Jared Engleman’s number three. So we’ve got three strong kids at one, two and three.”

Among the underclassmen, Lowe named Nolan Graves and Will Johnson as players to watch.

“I think Nolan Graves is playing well, and so is Will Johnson,” Lowe said. “I think they’re going to do good.” Johnson is a junior, while Graves is a freshman.

In the singles matches, Trimpe got the Tigers off to a good start with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Freeman, Lipe defeated Kane 6-0, 6-0, and Schreiber defeated Engleman 6-0, 6-0. In the lower half, Blake defeated Ethan King 6-2, 6-1, while Motley defeated Johnson 6-0, 6-0 and Hobin won over Alex Bierman 6-0, 6-0.

In the doubles matches, Trimpe and Lipe won over Freeman and King 6-0, 6-0, Schreiber and Hobin defeated Engleman and King 6-2, 6-1 and Blake and Motley won over Bierman and Johnson 6-0, 6-0 to complete the sweep.

The Redbirds next have a dual meet against O’Fallon at home on March 26, starting at 3:30 p.m. and both teams will compete in Edwardsville March 29-30, with the first big tournament of the season. Lowe’s overall goal for his team will be to win as much as possible and have fun doing it as well.

“That’s it. Hopefully, we’ll do the best we can, and have fun doing it,” Lowe said. “That’s our main goal.”

Lowe doesn’t have many big expectations for his team, but for his players to compete as well as they can.

“No, not really,” Lowe said. “Just to get out there and compete well in every match, and win as many as we can.”

For Lipe, he’s hoping that his team will improve as the season goes on.

“I expect us to improve a lot,” Lipe said. “I expect us to improve up and down our lineup significantly. I expect us to become a team together, I expect us to grow a lot as a team, I expect us to develop. We’ve really got a nice group of kids out for tennis this year, nice big freshman class. So, I expect us to improve dramatically, and I expect us to hopefully motivate some kids to get to work in this offseason.”

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