JDHS tennis team selects players to compete at state

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Crimson Bears play week of serves, groundstrokes and volleys to find state qualifiers

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé state tennis team pose for a photo at The Alaska Club Valley tennis courts on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. From left to right, sophomore Isaac Kirsch (boys doubles), sophomore Mia Alexander (mixed doubles), senior Dan Degener (boys doubles), Delphine Hochstoeger (alternate), sophomore Paxton Willoughby (alternate), senior Aurora Madsen (girls doubles), senior Isaac Hill (boys singles), senior Riley Dale (girls doubles), sophomore Oscar Lamb (mixed doubles), and senior Stahly Sheehan (girls singles). (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

By Klas Stolpe

Juneau Independent

The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé tennis team held their annual Region V Championships at Juneau’s Alaska Club Valley tennis courts, ending with final state selections last Saturday and senior recognitions on Monday.

The week of matches culminated in championships earned on Friday and Saturday in singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

Senior Isaac Hill captured the singles championship, winning his four matches in a tough bracket that went to three sets for the title over sophomore Isaac Kirsch.

“It feels pretty nice,” Hill said. “I had a great time at regions and I hope to have the same experience, if not a better one, over at state.”

Hill noted his playing strong point as “I love to talk. If I am all caught up and silent I am thinking about the game too much, and I can’t really hit the shots I want. So if I want to play well I really need to have my friends and people that support me to talk with me, and just get out of my head…Then I rely on my forehand and my serves.”

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé seniors Aurora Madsen, Stahly Sheehan, Isaac Hill, Dan Degener, Riley Dale, and Katherine Hieb were honored on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, at The Alaska Club Valley tennis courts. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

Seniors Riley Dale and Aurora Madsen won the girls doubles region title without losing a game, defending last season’s Southeast championship.

“It is pretty cool to win it two years in a row,” Dale said. “And I am very excited and looking forward to my senior year playing at state.”

Madsen said: “I am looking forward to playing at state again with Riley. We played last year so I think it will be fun to see how much we have worked in the past year and how well we can do this year.”

The duo placed fourth in doubles at state last season. This will be their third trip to state and is their fourth year on the JDHS team. Their history goes back even farther, however, as they met when Aurora was just two years old and Riley 18 months.

“Both of our parents, her dad (Jon) and my mom (Vivianne) worked together in the Coast Guard,” Madsen said. “So Riley and I have known each other since we were really little actually...Being in the Coast Guard you move around quite a bit but it is cool that we knew each other when we were little and came back and found each other and became friends.”

Their parents said that first meeting was a Coast Guard promotion at the glacier. The two girls were too busy and loud to sit through it and found it more fun to yell into the cave under the visitor center and hear the echo.

“It is pretty cool,” Dale said. “Moving around a bunch, stationed here multiple times and to come back and know people from previous years. We met when so little.”

After Coast Guard tours took them other destinations, both families returned to Juneau and the tennis doubles team was reunited in middle school in 2020. Vivian retired from the Coast Guard in 2022, Jon in 2023, but both families stayed in the capital city. The girls took tennis lessons with assistant coach Mona Mametsuka before their freshman year, went to a Connecticut tennis camp before sophomore season and now play at state together for the second time.

Dale said the secret to good doubles play “is really good communication with your partner and lots of practice, getting to know their strong points or weak points and vice versa, and to know your plays and team strength. My strong point is knowing what doubles’ strategies to play and when, and I think my weak point is probably up at the net.”

Madsen said: “I think Riley and I work really well together. My strong point would be my serves… and sometimes I struggle at the net, too. I would say faster balls are more difficult.”

Future Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé state tennis player Silas Stefanich, 2, runs to his next attendance at the Crimson Bears practice at the Alaska Club Valley tennis courts, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

Madsen also repeated as the girls region singles champion, which involved defeating Dale in both the semifinals and finals.

“In regions we can compete in all of them but not at state,” Madsen said. “Stahly (Sheehan) will compete at state. Regions feel nice. It is rewarding to win singles because all of the effort and all of the work you put in has been paying off.”

Sheehan is a first-year tennis senior and blossomed into a quality player. She lost twice in the tournament to Dale, including the consolation bracket play-in match to the championship. She has a background of 11 seasons in the Juneau Douglas Ice Association and JDHS hockey programs, meaning she moves fluently and with power.

“I just need to work hard and focus on things I need to work on,” Sheehan said. “I think my strong point is definitely hard hitting, but I need to work on not hitting the ball super hard every single time. Hitting the ball out is something I need to be extra careful with.”

Senior Dan Degener and Kirsch won the boys doubles region title, which included a three-set battle against Isaac Hill and sophomore Ian McWilliams in both the semifinals and finals.

“I am very excited to go back up to state and give it all I’ve got,” Degener said. “Regions have been really fun this year. There are a lot of really close games and a lot of strategy making. My strong point are my backhands and my weak point are my serves.”

The duo placed ninth at state in boys doubles last season.

Kirsch said: “It was pretty cool to win regions and I am excited because I want to win state this year. We were the same team last year and I think we are going to come back and do better...I am definitely a net guy. I get up to the net and hit the ball really hard. I think a weak point is just backhands.”

Degener said the key to doubles is “communication and keeping the morale high.”

Said Kirsch: “I think it is hitting the ball really hard and getting up to the net together.”

Sophomore returners Mia Alexander and Oscar Lamb won the mixed doubles region title, which included a pair of three-set matches against Hill and sophomore returner Naisha Bathija.

“I think just staying positive and helping each other out,” Alexander said of mixed doubles keys. “My strong point is being at the net, and I think my backhand is my weak point. The region championship is fun, it is good. It is just great playing with everyone and just learning and getting better.”

Lamb added, “I think it is working together and knowing when and who gets each ball. I am really solid with the backhand and I also like being at the net, but my weak point is probably lobs.”

Of the region title, Lamb said: “It is exciting. Traveling for tennis is really fun and I am excited to go to state.”

Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé, seniors Katherine Hieb, Riley Dale, Dan Degener, Isaac Hill, Aurora Madsen and Stahly Sheehan were honored on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, at The Alaska Club Valley tennis courts. (Klas Stolpe / Juneau Independent)

“As we head into this last week of practice with our state team our goal is to refine the tools that we have,” JDHS head coach Austin Stefanich said. “That they can go up and compete at their best level and see what we can do with the state competition.”

Stefanich also noted, “The last three years we have had around 27 to 30 players on our team. We hope to just see that continue to grow as the program continues to grow… Regions is just such a special event. Kids always come out and compete with an intensity we haven’t seen the rest of the year. They just put it all on the table and it was pretty awesome to watch, same as every year.”

JDHS also included a Region V Open bracket secondary varsity tournament, won by sophomore Vince Nizich.

“I didn’t know I would get an award for this, but it was pretty good,” Nizich said. “Tennis is hard, putting top spin on the ball is pretty hard to learn. It is cool. This season has been fun.”

The JDHS state team are Madsen and Dale (girls doubles), Degener and Kirsch (boys doubles), Sheehan (girls singles), Hill (boys singles), and Alexander and Lamb (mixed doubles). Alternates are junior returner Delphine Hochstoeger and sophomore returner Paxton Willoughby.

JDHS celebrated seniors Dale, Degener, Katherine Hieb, Hill, Madsen and Sheehan with gifts on Monday before the team’s final practice.

The Crimson Bears 2026-27 team included juniors Hochstoeger, Summit Bos, Freyja Shelton Walker and Grace Snyder; sophomores Kirsch, Alexander, Lamb, Willoughby, Nizich, Bathija, Oliver Rogers, Luca Ciambor, Adalyn Hartman, Alana Nguyen, Tanner Schultz and Murphy Sheehan; and freshmen McWilliams, Max Hayes, Gabriel McGuan, Aeson Stekoll, Chloe Travis, Shaylynn Tupou and Vadim Zimmerman.