Daily Chronicle Girls Tennis Player of the Year: Elizabeth Kleckner

For the first three years of her tennis career, Elizabeth Kleckner got to witness her Sycamore teammates qualify for state every season.

For her senior season, Kleckner got to add to that streak, wrapping up a 25-1 regular season with a trip to the Class 1A State Tournament alongside a full contingent of Spartans in the finale.

“I remember starting off as a freshman and watching Abby Krull and Alyssa Cooley go off to state and I was like, ‘Huh. I wonder if that’s obtainable for me?’ “ Kleckner said. “And then Ella Sharp qualified, Ashley [Olson] qualified, and all of a sudden I’m a senior. It’s my turn now. I qualified, and I feel like that kept our streak going, that we’ve had girls go every year I’ve been in high school, which I thought was really neat. And I hope the girls next year carry it on as well. It’s a pretty cool trend we’ve got going.”

Kleckner finished the year 26-3 after a 1-2 showing at the state tournament, bringing her career record to 52-6. She was named the 2022 Daily Chronicle Girls Tennis Player of the Year.

Her two losses in the state tournament were to players who made it at least four rounds deep. She was joined at the tournament by Abby Golembiewski – who she beat for the sectional championship – and doubles teams Jetta Weaver and Sabrina Ezell and Madyson Block and Becca Allen.

She said the team got better together as the season went on, and that made things very enjoyable.

“It was pretty fun watching not just myself succeed, but everyone did well,” Kleckner said. “I thought that was very cool. It makes it a very competitive environment. When our singles take first and second at sectionals, and then our doubles take three and four, that’s not only a good accomplishment for everyone to celebrate, but we were so highly motivated that it just made everything so competitive. That’s what you need to get better.”

Sycamore coach Rob Majerus said Kleckner put together one of the best careers in program history.

“This was hard work put together with discipline and perseverance,” Majerus said. “She’s got that competitive spirit you love to see in an athlete that they are going to grind and they are going to grit and do what they’ve got to do to improve not only herself but be a leader by example for the rest of the program.”

After helping the Spartan sophomore team win a title two years ago, Kleckner played the last few matches on varsity and went 3-0. She went 23-3 last year and 26-3 this year.

“When you’re able to put those kinds of numbers up, you’re a big part of winning on a daily basis when you can always count on your No. 1 player to get you a win,” Majerus said. “She and Golebiewski and Abby Bourdage, who didn’t get to play because of an ACL injury – we would have been scary good with Abby. She’s been a part of a really special core group of seniors who have taken us, gradually improving our record until going undefeated this year as a nice feather in their cap.”

Kleckner said the players set high expectations at the start of the season and put in the work to make sure they’d achieve everything they wanted.

“We wanted that conference championship, the traveling trophy, the conference tournament trophy, the sectional trophy, we wanted all that,” Kleckner said. “We didn’t know how well we’d do at state, but we ended up to 16 which is a great surprise. We weren’t sure how far we’d go. Since we achieved all those expectations everyone can sleep well at night now and are really happy we ended up getting all that stuff.”