Same sport, opposite paths: Tennis vet Kent, newcomer Oswalt enjoy long afternoon at Hubbs Courts

DIXON – Hayley Kent is only 13 years old, but she’s a veteran of the KSB Tennis Classic.

Mary Alice Oswalt is also 13, and she is experiencing the Petunia Festival tournament for the first time.

Both are enjoying themselves and playing as much tennis as they can this week. Kent and Oswalt each played twice Thursday, playing against each other in both the 14-under girls doubles and 14-under mixed doubles brackets.

Kent got the better of Oswalt in both of their head-to-head matches, but both girls wore smiles while playing in back-to-back brackets.

“I basically like everything about tennis,” Oswalt said. “I’m really glad I started playing again.”

“I love it because it’s such a fun sport,” Kent echoed. “You also get to meet new people, make new friends every summer out here.”

Already with a decade of tennis under her belt, Kent has been playing since she was 3 and has been a mainstay at the annual tournament. She has no preference between girls doubles and mixed doubles. Most of all, she loves seeing so many familiar faces at the Emma Hubbs Tennis Courts.

“I’d rather play with friends in a small bracket than in a big group of people you don’t know so well,” said Kent, referring to the three-team girls bracket and two-team mixed doubles division. “It’s not so tense and it’s a lot more fun when you know everyone and you all get along.”

Oswalt is still undecided about that. In her first tournament experience, she was unsure of whether she liked teaming up with Annie Vits in the girls division or Joey Hammitt in mixed doubles more, and was also surprised at the competitive juices that started flowing as she and Vits won a tiebreaker to determine second place in the girls bracket.

“Before this, I would have said I’d like it better playing with friends,” Oswalt said thoughtfully. “But after finally winning [the tiebreaker], feeling the pressure a little bit, I kind of want to know what it’s like when things are more competitive.”

While Kent has spent plenty of summers at Page Park, Oswalt is still re-learning a game that she once played but has since gotten lost in the shuffle of being a kid.