Get to know Carmen Kent, number one doubles player this year. 

What do you play, who’s your partner? 

My partner is Emma Lawson and we’re the number one doubles team. 

What are you excited for this season?

I’m super excited for the season. It’s my senior year and there are only four seniors, so I feel like it’s kind of my time to get to know everyone and show them that [the season] should be fun and you should make friends with everyone. [I want to show them that] not only do you have to work hard, but you have to want it. 

What’s is like having lots of underclassmen on your team as a senior? 

It gives me a chance to meet them. I’m in a lot of classes where it’s only upperclassmen, so I don’t get a lot of time to intermix with them. 

What’s it like being a team captain and also having two other captains alongside you? 

I like it because I feel like the girls are a lot more comfortable coming to talk to me than they would be coming to talk to Coach Seal, just because of the intimidation factor. I feel like I’m just a little more approachable maybe than he would be, especially if it’s questions they feel are silly questions, or questions they should maybe already know the answer to. 

What’s it been like playing under Coach Seal for the last three years? 

Coach Seal is one of the reasons I love tennis so much. He makes it fun and he keeps it interesting. He always has our best interest in mind and I just feel like if he didn’t care about us as much, he wouldn’t be here. But he cares about Pittsburg and he cares about our team. He cares about the sport and he wants us all to enjoy it as much as he does, which I think is really important in a coach. 

What are your thoughts about the season? 

This year I feel like it’s kind of a building year. With over the last several years, we’ve lost a lot of seniors and a lot of senior leadership in skill. We’re getting younger players the ball more and getting them more comfortable playing. 

What are you most excited for? 

I’m looking forward to the most this season when we have our overnight trips because a lot of the times they’re up in the Kansas City area and it’s just a good time for our team to get to know each other better. We get to hang out, we go to dinner, we have sleepovers in the hotel. It gives us more time to spend together, because a lot of times on the team we have different friend groups and so we don’t get to hang out a lot outside of practice, but trips like that help. Coach Seal does morning wake-up calls on the hotel phones and I don’t know anyone else who does that, so that’s really fun. 

What are some of your goals for the season?

I want to win SEK, so emma and I are working towards that. Hopefully place better at regionals than we did last year. We lost in the first round. I’m hoping we at least get past the first round, get better seeding, stuff like that, and have a little bit more consistency throughout the season. Last year I went through a few partner changes and it got a little stressful because everyone plays a little differently, but I’m really happy this year. Emma is my main partner and we’re just going to battle out the season together.