In many ways, Seaman's Grace Unruh and Lauren Sweeney accomplished exactly what they set out do a year ago at the Class 5A state tennis tournament.
 
Paired together for the first year after being doubles state qualifiers with different partners in 2019, the Viking duo set their sights on reaching the second day of the 2020 state tournament on the championship side of the bracket. A 6-2, 7-5 win over McPherson's Ceanna Allen and Perrin Schneider secured that coveted semifinal spot.
 
The second day of state was a bit of an eye-opener for the Seaman teammates, who were 30-1 going into the state tournament. But not in the sense that they were overwhelmed by the competition.
 
More so, it was the fact that despite dropping both their semifinal and third-place matches, Unruh and Sweeney knew they not only belonged but were a championship-caliber combo.
 
"We were close last year," Unruh said. "We saw who finished ahead of us and we knew we were at that level, but we just didn't execute. In some ways, those teams were better, but they played a lot smarter than we did. That's where we are different this year. We're much smarter, not just hitting the ball. I think we were at their level."
 
Unruh and Sweeney have certainly back up that notion this season. Going into Saturday's Class 5A regional at Seaman, the Viking duo boast a stellar 29-0 record.
 
"Last year, we wanted to just make it to the second day; that was our goal," Sweeney said. "Once we got there, we maybe settled. But we saw we could play with the teams that placed at the top. That just motivated us to work harder this year."
 
After extensive offseason work, Unruh and Sweeney have been virtually untouchable this season, capturing their second straight City and Centennial League championships along the way. They've lost more than three games just four times in their 29 matches – a trio of 8-6 victories and a 6-2, 6-2 win over Washburn Rural's Katie Fritz and Meredith Kucera in the finals of the city tournament.
 
In their rematch last week at the league meet, Kucera and Fritz jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the title match before Unruh and Sweeney stormed back for an 8-3 victory.
 
"Getting down 0-2, we just were in a slump, didn't have energy, weren't moving well," Unruh said. "We just had to come together and work our way back to do it. It was good to be tested and it gave us a good challenge."
 
Their toughest tests of the season came at the Emporia Invitational against a field made up largely of Class 6A schools. Unruh and Sweeney handed the Shawnee Mission East duo of Aanya Bansal and Nora Friskel their first loss of the season with an 8-2 but then got big-time battles from the Free State duo of Maya Lee and Dayna Steadman and Blue Valley West's Sofia Tewell and Josephine Mestad.
 
The Vikings won both matches 8-6, rallying from down 6-5 against Tewell and Mestad for the win.
 
"That was the best high school doubles match I've ever seen," Seaman coach Jamie Robinson said. "It was impressive and really high-level tennis."
 
Unruh won her 100^th career match earlier this season and is 118-8 in her doubles career. She went 27-5 as a freshman teamed with Emma Dowd and then posted a 30-5 mark and won city and regional titles before taking seventh at state as a sophomore with a new partner, Emma Biggs.
 
She hooked up with Sweeney in 2020, something Sweeney – who qualified for state as a freshman in 2019 with Dowd as her partner – was admittedly anxious about.
 
"It was nerve-wracking," Sweeney said. "What she did with Emma Biggs, it was pretty amazing. I knew I was going to have a good partner. But I felt some pressure to do well for her."
 
Unruh said she was never really concerned about how well they would mesh.
 
"After my sophomore year, her freshman year, our coach was like, 'You girls will be playing together. Get ready,'" Unruh said. "So we had that whole offseason. And we're best friends off the court, so the chemistry together has been there forever.
 
"Lauren's just good. I think our styles complement each other pretty well. When one's at the baseline, we can set the other up at the net pretty easily and vice-versa."
 
"We played together in the summer and that helped," Sweeney said. "It took a few matches to get going and understand how each other played. But once we got rolling, we know how to play together. We know each other's strength and weaknesses and we communicate well on the court. That's huge."
 
Robinson said the duo is a nearly perfect combination.
 
"They've got three things going for them," he said. "One, they're good tennis players and very disciplined. Two, they have great chemistry on the court. They never seem to be out of place during the match. And they've got great experience. Those three things make a good doubles team.
 
"They're fun to watch because it's watching fundamental tennis at its best. They play that triangle very, very good. They know what they're doing."
 
Unruh and Sweeney said going undefeated was never the main goal this season, but they've enjoyed the ride so far and ignored whatever pressure comes along with.
 
"I think it has exceeded expectations," Unruh said. "The goal wasn't to go undefeated in the regular season, but that's been nice. We've had a blast. I've tried not to think about (being undefeated). I don't want to think about it. It adds a little bit of pressure, but it's more motivation than it is pressure."
 
Sweeney agreed.
 
"There's a little pressure but we just play our game," she said. "You can't really let pressure bother you once you're on the court. We just want to end it on a good note."
 
Seaman also boasts a top-notch singles player in junior Nina Del-Zio, who is 21-9 after transferring in from California. Katherine Krummins brings a 21-10 singles mark into regionals.
 
Leavenworth's Brooke Collins and Clarice Langfoss could be Seaman's top doubles challengers at regionals, compiling a 17-5 record this season. Shawnee Heights' Paige Devena and Bella LeJuerrne are 14-8. 
 
In other 5A regionals:
 

• The Arkansas City is flat-out loaded with defending state champion Bishop Carroll and runner-up Kapaun Mt. Carmel headlining the field.

 
Kapaun's Reagan Boleski was runner-up at state a year ago in singles, her only losses on the season coming to four-time state champion and teammate Clara Whitaker. With Whitaker gone, Boleski is poised to keep the hardware in the Crusader camp and has gone 25-1 this season.
 
But she'll enter regionals with a renewed hunger after suffering her first and only loss to Carroll's Brynn Steven in the finals of last Saturday's GWAL championship match, a 7-5, 6-3 battle. Boleski is 3-1 this season against Steven, who is 16-3.
 
Jacquelyn Ackerman is 21-7 in singles play for Kapaun and won the GWAL No. 2 title, while the Crusader doubles team of Emma Bezdek and Elizabeth Orme are 17-7 and took second at league to Carroll's Lexi Steven and Brynna Gormley, who are 11-7.
 
Andover's Sarah Sinclair was a state doubles champion with her sister, Emma, last season, but transitioned to singles this year and is 20-6 with losses to Boleski, Steven, past 4A champions Isabelle Sebits of Wichita Trinity and Emma Mantovani of Wichita Collegiate and 6A state placer Sree Mylavarapu.
 
Freshman teammate Molly Gaddis is 19-8, while the Trojan doubles teams of Anna Jittawait and Brooke Walker (21-3) and Annabelle Tantemsomboon and Hannah Pappademos (17-6) went 1-2 at the Trojans' league meet.
 
Eisenhower's Rachel Davis (22-6) and Alana Ewertt (22-8) and Andover Central's Anna Strickland (17-8) could also challenge in singles play with Central's McKinnley Evans and Grace Schaefer (13-6) a contender in doubles.
 

• At the Newton regional, Salina South's Iliana Armbrust was a third-place finisher at state last year in doubles with departed partner Alexxa Nunemaker. This year, she's teamed with Tess Dailey to go 21-3 to lead the Cougars.

 
Salina Central boasts a deep team looking to add another regional title to its collection. Veronica Montoya is 23-6 in singles play while freshman Katelyn Rupe is 21-8. The Mustangs also have strong doubles contenders in Mackenzie Nutter and Addison Renfro (20-11) and Claire Renfro and Mallory Renfro (19-11).
 
Maize will also have a pair of contending doubles teams in Elyce Pfeifer and Ella Strobel (20-10) and Paige Putter and Peyton Samek (21-9), while Valley Center's Eris Bishop and Maddelyn Hamm have gone 20-8 and Hays' Mallory Henderson and Jersey Johnson are 14-6.
 

• At the Blue Valley Southwest regional, St. James Academy's Natalie Kurland and Emily Calcara are 21-10 and Frances Book and Mia Staley are 19-9 to give the Thunder some punch in doubles. Spring Hill's Tessa Dawson and Kaylee Oakes (17-7) and St. Thomas Aquinas' Sarah Gay and Madilyn McMullen (15-7) could also challenge.

 
St. James' Megan Ward (23-6), Mill Valley's Brianna Coup (21-6), Blue Valley Southwest's Jensen Gibbs (19-5) and Madison Lybarger (17-9), Spring Hill's Arianna Martin (21-7) lead the singles bracket, while De Soto's Emma Hellerich (15-7) earned United Kansas Conference player of the year honors.