Girls tennis 2024: Midview's Katarina Yates prides herself on being able to adapt her game to meet any challenge that arises

Versatility just might be Katarina Yates' greatest strength on the tennis court. The Midview senior can roam the baseline, attack the net and cover the court with her athleticism. She put that versatility to the test during the offseason by taking on a variety of opponents with different styles while playing the United States Tennis Association circuit. "I thrive on adapting to who I'm playing against," Yates said. "Just being able to adapt myself on high-level play allows me to see where I need to be and then practice to try and be there." She's also adjusted to tennis being her primary sport, a marked change from her younger days when she could be found diving after a softball either at shortstop or center field. But when she realized she didn't want to pursue softball in college, she shifted to tennis. "There was a lot of adapting, taking what I learned from softball and adapting it to my tennis game," Yates said. "I batted left-handed, so my backhand is basically my softball swing. Mentally, I find myself able to focus very well during my tennis matches coming from such a more chaotic sport. "I took my competitiveness and will to win from softball and converted it into tennis in my own way. That's helped me." The pivot wasn't exactly out of the blue since tennis runs in her family. Her mother, Jill, coaches the Middies boys and girls programs and her father, Kevin, and older sister, Kierstyn, are assistant coaches. While she didn't play competitively until middle school, she was constantly on the court with her siblings since she was 4 years old. That was competition enough to prepare her for varsity tennis, where she won the first singles position and put together 19 wins her freshman year. Two of those wins came at doubles after she elected to play doubles with her sister Gabriela at the sectional tournament, reaching the quarterfinals. "We would always be out on the courts," Kevin said. "The kids always enjoyed it. Tennis is on all the time on our television. It's just one of those things that we rally around." Everyone in the family plays. In fact, all of her siblings and her mother played for Midview. Jill played first singles, as did Kierstyn, while Gabriela and her brother, Chaz, were mainstays during their four years. Kierstyn just finished her college career at Baldwin Wallace, where Chaz currently plays. When Kierstyn graduated in 2021, she left as the program's all-time leader in overall wins and wins at No. 1 singles. But Katarina has already broken her sister's record at the first singles spot and entered the season needing 14 wins to become the program's all-time leader. She went 24-4 last season. The only times Katarina hasn't played first singles for Midview came when she and Gabriela played doubles during tournament play. In 2022, the pair won both the Lorain County Athletic Administrators Association and Southwestern Conference first doubles titles and reached the sectional quarterfinals for the second straight year, falling one match shy of a district bid. "It means a lot," Katarina said of playing with her family. "Just to be able to bond and spend time with each other over something we all love doing. We just enjoy playing it, so it means a lot to stay active to be able to get together and do something we love so much." Aside from the school records, Yates has her sights set on defending her LCAAA title, going further at the SWC tournament and making a run at making state, which she will do in Division II this year with the Middies being moved down from Division I. In addition to playing some tough tournaments against college-level players, Katarina has worked hard on improving her serve and approach shots during the offseason, Jill said. It's safe to say she's ready after opening the season with three wins against returning state qualifiers to win the first singles title at the Norwalk Invitational on Aug. 10. "The type of competition she saw was consistently higher level," Jill said. "Seeing that as much as she saw this summer was very much part of her improvement. She just got in there, got a lot more match experience and was surrounded with players from the higher college levels. It led to a lot of improvement in her game." Contact Chris Sweeney at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.