FORTVILLE — The idea of playing tennis, the inspiration to pick up the game, came from watching her older sisters play when she was younger.
The love for the game, though? That came from somewhere else for Mt. Vernon’s Lydia Ruegsegger.
Ruegsegger’s father, David, sparked a passion for the sport with a tennis-themed game and a fun reward. It was called “Smash Your Dad,” and the goal was simple — hit your dad with the tennis ball, get an ice cream cone.
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The passion was born.
“We have this basketball court on the side of our house. On one end of it is our wall, our old wooden deck,” Lydia Ruegsegger said. “He would stand with a racket at the wall. When I was younger I’d stand a little farther back, and I’d try to hit him. Each time I hit him, he would get me an ice cream cone. I think that really got me into it. I wanted to win. It was another competition.”
Ruegsegger followed her older sisters’ footsteps, becoming a focal point of the Mt. Vernon tennis program. She won a lot as a freshman, going 20-5 from the No. 2 singles position. This year she took over the No. 1 role, going 15-5 and helping the team to county and sectional titles, the sixth straight win of each.
She went 15-5 and moved up to sixth in the district rankings, making honorable mention all-state for the second year a row. She never lost a set to a county opponent throughout the regular season, county tournament and sectional play.
She has been named the Hancock County Girls Tennis Player of the Year, something that wasn’t necessarily her goal this season since she didn’t even know it existed.
“My parents told me, and at first I was like, wait, that’s a thing? I was kind of shocked at first,” Ruegsegger said. “Then it was like, oh, that’s awesome. That’s not exactly what I’ve been working towards, but it’s something I know that I prepared for.”
Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh has known for a while that he had something special with Ruegsegger, and it wasn’t just the family name. Both of her sisters, Hannah and Clara, played for him and went on to play in college.
He’s known Lydia for a long time, though. She’s been around the Mt. Vernon tennis program since she was about 4 years old. Muterspaugh has seen what she’s capable of and the work she puts into the game.
He felt like he had the best player in the county before the season started, and she proved him right.
“We’ve known about Lydia coming up for a long time,” Muterspaugh said. “She’s been around tennis her whole life. I think sometimes it’s just a matter of knowing you’re a better player, knowing that you’ve got everything in the book to dominate.
“She has seen the fruits of hard work, the labor. You get as much out as you put in. Tennis is a game of imperfections and a game of you’re battling yourself a lot of times. The mental side is so important, and she’s had some great leaders.”
She’s developing into a great leader herself. Having a player of her caliber leading the team from the No. 1 singles position is something Muterspaugh doesn’t take for granted.
Most of the team’s six losses this year came when she was out with an elbow injury. When she was healthy and in the lineup, the Marauders typically rolled to a win.
“It’s huge. We walked out every single night, and against 95 percent of the teams we know we’ve got a point already, we’re up 1-0,” he said. “That’s a nice luxury to have, especially at the one singles spot.”
The injury — an overuse injury — was a frustration for Ruegsegger, and she’s taking about a month off now that the season ended to heal. It forced her to miss time near the conclusion of the regular season, but she was still happy with how her year turned out.
She recognized her own personal improvement from her freshman season, and said she was happy with the progress she’s made.
“I felt like even on bad days, I didn’t feel like I played worse than last year,” she said. “My bad days this year were probably my good days last year. I felt like that was great. I’m happy to take that step up.”
Muterspaugh said that “she is a machine” and will be back to work in no time. For now, she’s working on her conditioning, doing a lot of biking to help strengthen her legs and improve her endurance. She’s working on her arms and core, along with her footwork.
She said that advancing in the individual state tournament and playing Lucy Loy of Fishers opened her eyes a bit toward the need to work on her conditioning.
“She was just really conditioned, really fit,” Ruegsegger said. “The heat didn’t affect her as much as it did me.”
Ruegsegger may only be two years into her high school career, but just as they saw with her sisters before, her parents have already seen Lydia experience plenty of success at that level, now culminating in being named the Player of the Year.
“It’s been really rewarding,” David Ruegsegger said. “She’s been playing since she’s probably four or five. It’s kind of an accumulation of her playing all those years. Seeing her do well is just rewarding to see. We’re of course happy for her because she’s put in the work.”
Looking to the future, Ruegsegger has goals and aspirations to play at the next level. She’s still figuring out where she may want to go — D1, NAIA or elsewhere — but she said she is hoping her tennis game earns her a full ride scholarship to help her parents out.
She will take on an even bigger leadership role for the Marauders next year with the graduation of seniors Kaleigh Helm and Maeve Laughlin. She doesn’t really feel much pressure in that role, not from the family background or from playing at a school that has won so frequently.
She wants to take advantage of the opportunities she’s been given, though, to keep on improving and help the Marauders keep on winning.
“I don’t think there’s more pressure from one or the other. Not pressure, but expectations,” she said. “You’ve come from two older sisters and just hitting and playing around when you were younger to actually being able to compete. Knowing that my sisters didn’t get the same treatment, I guess, with lessons, clinics, I feel like I have expectations of myself as well. I’ve been given this ability. I have to use it somehow.”