The Powell tennis program lost a key member of the team when long-time coach Ray Bieber decided to call it a career and retire at the end of last season.

But Bieber had a hand in his replacement, asking Joe Asay, a former stand-out swimmer in Cody, to take over.

“There’s always been a lot of tennis in the area and while I was a swimmer in Cody during the winter seasons, before my senior year I picked up a racket for the fall season and decided it was kind of fun and it kept going from there,” Asay said. “Over time, I got to know Ray Bieber who was coaching swimming for Powell. When my family and I landed here six years ago, I started wandering around and coach Bieber asked me to come out and help. When he retired he ran it by me to see if I’d be interested. I always thought I’d end up coaching on the swim deck, but I just love this game and time-wise, this really works best for me as well.”

As for the team he is taking over, Asay is without the services of graduate Cody Akin who was the singles state champion last season.

Which, while a big loss, creates opportunities.

“We have two strong junior girls (Hattie Pimentel and Lauren Asher) returning and a senior, Jen Bonander, who are at the top,” Asay said. “On the boys side, there’s a strong junior Rhett Pimentel at the number one position, but we have freshman Jesse Brown that is pushing for it. Two other juniors, James Sheets and Aaron Jacobsen, are also back.”

And while the team has its share of upper classmen with talent and experience, there is a youth movement afoot.

“We have three freshmen that have worked their way onto the varsity team, with another four that are right at the top end of the junior varsity,” Asay said. “Having that sort of competition within the team really helps push them and makes us better. After they all competed, I put a bracket together of where I thought people should be to have them in the best position to succeed and compared it with a bracket that (JV coach Brandon) Preator put together, and they pretty much matched up.”

Things didn’t start off, perhaps, in as strong of a way as Asay may have liked as the Panther boys fell by a 4-1 margin at Green River Friday, though the girls played it closer in a 3-2 loss.

Lauren Asher was dominant in her No. 2 singles win, cruising to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Haylen Cordova and the duo of Bonander and Kaylee Meyer went three sets in topping Isabel Leininger and Alex Palmer 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

And even in the losses, the Lady Panthers were competitive as Nicole Sanders and Sierra Sanders stretched their No. 2 doubles match to three sets.

On the boys side, it was that freshman vying for the top spot that got the lone win with Jesse Brown getting past Andrew Halverson 6-4 4-6, 7-5 at No. 2 singles.

Rhett Pimentel put up a good battle against Jacob Lock at No. 1 singles, but fell 6-7 and 4-6.

Wade Musso and Derrick Lynn also proved competitive in defeat at No. 3 doubles, winning three games in each of the two sets.

Saturday saw the team 20 minutes up the road in Rock Springs, where things took a definite turn for the better against Rawlins as both the boys and girls pulled off 5-0 wins.

Rhett Pimental got it started with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Ryan Pfeffer at No. 1 singles and Brown went straight sets in a 6-0, 6-0 shutout of Jacob Pacheco at No. 2 singles.

Nate Brown and Dylan Preator lost a hard-fought first set at No. 1 doubles, 7-5, but bounced back with 6-4 and 6-1 wins to take the match going away.

Musso and Lynn got the final Powell win at No. 3 doubles over Sebastian Maes and Alfonso Porea.

For the Lady Panthers, Hattie Pimentel went 6-2, 6-1 over Anne McFarland at No. 1 singles and Asher triumphed 6-2, 6-1 over Kryslin Poppie at No. 2 singles.

The No. 1 doubles team of Bonander and Meyer were slightly tested in a 6-3, first-set win, but slammed their way to a 6-0 clinching set.

Similarly, the Sanders girls held on for a 6-4 win in the opener at No. 2 doubles, but came together to overpower Mackenzie Thompson and Selena Landa in the second set, 6-0.

Shayla Shoopman and Sloane Asay finished off their match quickly with 6-0 and 6-1 wins at No. 3 doubles.

Powell then finished up the busy opening weekend with the girls continuing to roll in a 5-0 win over the hosting Rock Springs Tigers.

Hattie Pimentel and Asher took the two singles matches, 6-2, 6-2 and 6-1, 6-3, respectively.

Bonander and Meyer went 6-1, 7-5 at No. 1 doubles while the Sanders’ went straight sets as well, getting a 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 2.

Shoopman and Asay then had to battle, getting a 7-5 first-set win before Courtney Smith and Amanda Borders of Rock Springs evened the match up with a 6-2 win.

But the Powell pair pulled out a 6-3 victory to complete the sweep.

On the boys side, Rhett Pimentel won the No. 1 singles match, 6-4, 6-3, and Jesse Brown continued to show his strong play by going 6-0, 6-0 over Fletcher Wadsworth.

But the Panthers doubles teams had a tough time, dropping their matches in straight sets as Rock Springs got the 3-2 match win.

The first weekend out of the way, Powell will be at home Thursday with a tough test against visiting Cody, which saw both its boys and girls teams go 3-0 over the weekend against the same trio of Rawlins, Rock Springs and Green River.

The home match is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.