Olathe Northwest's girls tennis team claimed its third straight Sunflower League championship on Friday, Oct. 2, capping a run that began with the program's first-ever league title in 2024.
The Lady Ravens won the rain-delayed tournament at the College Boulevard Activity Center in Olathe, according to an announcement from ONW Ravens Athletics posted Monday, Oct. 5. The championship had been rescheduled from Thursday, Oct. 1, because of weather.
Before 2024, the program had never won a league or regional title. Now it owns three consecutive Sunflower League crowns.
"As recently as 2020, this program had never won a league or regional championship," head coach Drew Smith told KSHSAA Covered after the 2025 league title. ONW finished with 74 points at that 2025 league championship, 13 ahead of runner-up Shawnee Mission East.
The 2026 roster has already shown its depth. At the Olathe City Championship on Sept. 21-22, all eight Lady Ravens entries went undefeated, according to ONW athletic director Barnes, who posted the results on Instagram. Singles players Seraphine Besong, Ada Smith, Lillian Sobczyk and Avery Bergman each finished 4-0. Doubles teams Rand/Spencer, Sobczyk/Holthus, Schickedanz/Paisley and Bugg/Bolos matched them.
Besong, a sophomore, finished as the Class 6A state singles runner-up in 2025 with a 31-4 record. Emery Rand and Ada Smith reached fourth place as a doubles pair at that same state tournament, according to KSHSAA Covered.
The program also holds back-to-back Class 6A state championships from 2024 and 2025. At the 2025 state tournament, ONW scored 38 points at the College Boulevard Activity Center, finishing ahead of Lawrence Free State with 30 and Blue Valley North with 25.
"The team dynamic is completely different, so to be able to come in here again, with basically almost a completely new team and win is just an amazing feeling," Rand told KSHSAA Covered after that October 2025 state title.
The Lady Ravens' next target: the KSHSAA Class 6A state tournament, scheduled for Friday, Oct. 16, and Saturday, Oct. 17.
