While Aberdeen Roncalli will return half of its starting lineup from a year ago, there will be lot of people in new positions for the tennis team this season.

The Cavaliers lost their top three players and head coach from a year ago.

Former assistant Jonah Dignan takes over the reigns of the program, which starts its season today with a pair of road duals against Mitchell and Huron.

“We started with challenge matches right away to kind of figure out our lineup, because we graduated our top three,” said Dignan. “We have a lot of young talent this year. We have a lot of seventh-graders that were ineligible for varsity play last year, so we’re just figuring out where they fit in our lineup.”

While Dignan will be in his first year as a varsity coach, he does have an immediate advantage in that he has been around the program, and knows the strengths and weaknesses of the players.

“I’ve been around the girls for the last season, so I know the girls and I know how they play,” Dignan said. “I watched a lot of them play all summer in the tournaments in town here. I was able to kind of start knowing where they should be in the lineup.”

The doubles teams will be a bit different because at least two of the three varsity teams from last year will no longer be the same with the graduation of three members.

“I came in pretty much knowing who I thought our doubles would be,” Dignan said, “and so we’re just going to go with that for the first week here and see how it goes.”

Keira Rivett is the lone senior on the squad and will move up from fourth flight singles to the top of the lineup this season.

“Right now we have Keira playing at the one spot as the returning senior, and the highest-rated returner,” Dignan said. “Pretty much see her staying there. She’s experienced. She’s good at that. She’ll be a leader.”

Lone junior Josie Mitzel and freshman Gianna Cihak are the other returning starters from a year ago.

“Josie Mitzel, she played five for us last year. She’ll move up the ladder this year,” Dignan said. “Gianna Cihak played sixth for us last year and then put in a ton of time in the off season.”

After that, the roster will be filled out by a variety of up-and-coming players, including seventh-grader Sydney Bohle who won multiple tournaments this summer.

“Sydney will be fairly high up in the lineup,” Dignan said. “We have Molleigh Hofer and Lydia Nora, those two will be competing for a varsity spot. Abigail Andersen will be in the mix for a couple of those spots, too.”

With a relatively young and inexperienced squad this season, Dignan wants the players to have fun and do their best and then see what happens from there.

“We set goals pretty early on, and they were just to have fun and to try your best. That’s all I really expected from them is to try your best,” Dignan said. “If trying our best gets us a good placement at state, I’m happy with that. If we try our best and it doesn’t, all I can ask is that they tried.”

At age 21, Dignan is not that much older than some of the players, but he said that allows him to understand some of the issues they are dealing with and sees it as a positive.

“The girls have a pretty good respect for anyone in the coaching position, and I think it makes it fun,” Dignan said. “I understand what’s going on with the social media trends that they’re talking about and stuff so we have good discussions about that, and it kind of allows us to bond more as a team.”

Dignan is inheriting the program from Jason and Kelly Haskell, who have guided the Cavaliers for the past several seasons. He said working under them has helped to prepare him for the task at hand.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Dignan said of heading into his first season as a head coach. “It’s a little nerve-wrecking, but the Haskells put the program in a good spot for me, and they’re willing to help out with anything pretty much.”

Roncalli has nearly 20 girls out for tennis this season and with their youth, the future looks bright for the Cavaliers.

“It will be some growing pains for a couple years here,” Dignan, “but I think once these girls get more experience, we’ll be pretty good.”

Dignan enters the season-opening matches today with an attitude of being flexible with so many new faces in new spots.

“We’re going to try things out and see if it works,” Dignan said, “and if it does great, and if it doesn’t, we’ll try something new.”