WHITEHALL – Whitehall’s Ashton Trnka has at least one tournament left, and he’s hopeful that it won’t be his last.

That could depend on his individual performance on Wednesday in the Division 3 regional tournament at Forest Hills Eastern High School.

Players automatically make it to the state finals if their team finishes first or second at regionals. That’s how Trnka made it as a freshman, when he played doubles, and again as a sophomore, when he played No. 2 singles.

If the team doesn’t make it, only the two finalists in No. 1 singles get to move on to state as individuals. Whitehall didn’t quality as a team last year, and neither did Trnka.

As a No. 1 singles player again this year, Trnka will be facing some of the very best players in the region on Wednesday, and will have his work cut out for him.

But he’s a senior and one of the top players in the Muskegon area, and he very much wants to accomplish his final set of goals.

“Going to state is one goal,” said Trnka, who recently won the No. 1 singles championship at the Coastal Conference tournament. “I also want to be All-State, and those two are my primary goals.”

His coach, Greg McManus, believes Trnka has what it takes to qualify for state, one way or another.

“We’ve played all the top teams in our region,” McManus said about Trnka, who is currently 19-6 on the season. “He’s in a good position to qualify for state. If we won’t make it as a team, he still can qualify.”

If Trnka is successful at regionals, it will likely be on the strength of his powerful serve, which is his biggest weapon on the court.

“My coach and I talk about being like a pitcher,” Trnka said about his serving philosophy. “You want to change it up. Whether you go hard, flat, slice, or top spin, you’re trying to get the opponent to think. You want to make sure you’re not continually throwing the same pitch, and want to mix it up like a pitcher would.”

While Trnka has always had a strong serve, McManus believes the consistency of his overall power game has been his biggest improvement over four years of varsity tennis.

“He’s definitely a power player,” the coach said. “Our biggest challenge through the years has been taking his power and making him more consistent. He’s hitting winners. Hitting for power has never been a challenge because it’s been his thing since he was a freshman. He had to learn at times to tune it back and be more consistent by waiting for his opportunities and not forcing it.”

One positive for Trnka headed into regionals is that he won’t be facing Mona Shores’ Drew Hackney, who he recently lost to in the No. 1 singles final at the Greater Muskegon Athletic Association City Tennis Tournament.

If it wasn’t for Hackney, Trnka could have easily been a two-time city champion at No. 1 singles.

While the final score in that match – 6-1, 6-2 – may not seem impressive for Trnka, winning three games was actually an accomplishment against Hackney, one of the best players in the state.

Trnka  also blazed a few serves past Hackney for aces, which is not easy to do.

“We were really happy,” McManus said about the match. “We kind of knew he had a roadblock in Drew. Drew has probably played 100 more matches than Ashton, even though he’s only a sophomore. I don’t think Ashton had previously won a game off of him, and we had a mini goal to protect serve and he did. When we got done, we almost felt like it was a win.”

Regardless of when Trnka’s varsity career ends – at regionals or state – he hopes that his career at Whitehall has left a positive impression on his teammates and future Viking players.

“I just want to set an example for everyone,” he said. “I want to show what it hopefully means to be a good player, and that when you put the time in, you get rewarded.”