The Amelia girls’ tennis team will feature three three-year varisty starters in Hannah Fulks, Mallory Buten and Holly Buten.

The Amelia girls’ tennis team will feature three three-year varisty starters in Hannah Fulks, Mallory Buten and Holly Buten.
The Amelia girls’ tennis team has had some steady success over the past few seasons and the Lady Barons hope to parlay those winning ways into the 2012-13 season.

Returning all three singles starters from a year ago, Amelia will be led by set of seniors that will be comfortable in their roles while they incorporate some new blood into the program.

Hannah Fulks has been the No. 1 singles player for the Lady Barons since her freshman year, garnering Southern Buckeye Conference First Team honors each of the last two seasons.

Playing in the second and third singles slots have been twins Holly and Mallory Buten. The Butens have also started on the Lady Barons’ varsity squad since their freshman year.

Holly has been named to the All-Conference team twice, first as a sophomore as a doubles partner and then again her junior year for her success in second singles.

Mallory was a Second Team All-Conference selection last season for her work in third singles.

Under the tutelage of head coach Adam Moeller, the triumvirate of senior leaders will have the task of passing the torch of the Amelia program to younger players while also trying to accomplish their own goals as seniors.

While all three are exploring their options of playing tennis at the next level, their final seasons have already gotten underway.

The season-opening Southern Buckeye Tennis Invitational already saw the Lady Barons get their first wins under their belts.

Fulks advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament before getting ousted by Batavia’s Mary Ostigny.

As for the Buten twins, Holly bowed out in the second round following a loss to Western Brown’s Hannah Wiesenhahn who then went on to defeat Mallory as well.

The quarterfinal match up would have pitted the sisters against each other for only the second time in actual competition. The only other time the two faced off was last September in the Southern Buckeye tournament.

Holly won the first set 6-2, but Mallory came back to take the second set 7-5 and then took the match winning 10-4 in a super tiebreaker.

While the three Lady Barons hope to improve upon their second-place finish in the SBC last year, Wiesenhahn and Western Brown will be tough to overtake.

But before it’s all said and done, the Lady Barons should have three cracks at it.