Lawrence High’s Tommy Johnson knew he wouldn’t be fatigued Tuesday evening because he was playing only one tennis match.

“You can definitely lay it all on the line,” said the LHS junior, who easily won his No. 1 singles match against Shawnee Heights’ Tyler Powell, 8-1.

In fact, the toughest part of Johnson’s evening was watching his teammates defeat both Shawnee Heights and Topeka Seaman by 3-1 scores, while falling to Topeka West 3-1 during Lawrence’s quadrangular at the Lawrence Tennis Center.

Still, cheering from the stands has to be an easier task than the daily math LHS coach Dick Wedel figures to ensure none of his players goes over the competition limit.

“While it’s not rocket science, there are some numbers to be crunched,” said Wedel, who tallies each player’s court appearances in a big, black book.

The Kansas State High School Activities Assn. limits tennis players to eight days of competition during a season.

However, days aren’t exactly counted as days.

For instance, because Johnson played in only one dual out of the possible three Tuesday, he used up only a half of a day of competition.

Thus, if Johnson played in just dual matches, he could play on 16 different days. But playing multiple matches in a one-day tournament would use up a full day.

Lawrence High's Tommy Johnson returns a serve during the Lions' 2-1 showing at a quad. LHS beat Shawnee Heights and Topeka Seaman, but fell to Topeka West on Tuesday at the Lawrence Tennis Center.

“Not even Roger Federer (the world’s top-ranked men’s player) could play in all the matches,” Wedel said with a grin. “There becomes a few difficulties in scheduling meets and balancing your lineup.”

While Lawrence will play in 16 junior varsity/varsity events this season, Wedel has to decide who will play where and when.

Since the end of the season is crucial because of regionals and state competition, Wedel said he would save later matches for his best players to get ready for those events.

Another factor is travel.

When the Lions hit the road, Wedel takes six or seven players with him, thus drastically limiting his possible combinations.

Tuesday, Wedel used 11 Lions.

“In a way it’s kind of nice, because it allows everyone on the team to play,” Wedel said. “And in high school tennis, playing time is the most important thing. But you can get in a bind with injuries or overplaying someone early in the season.”

Only three Lions played in each dual Tuesday.

Noah Welch split his singles matches against Topeka West and Topeka Seaman, and dropped his doubles match to Shawnee Heights when he paired with Sam Goodell.

The Lions’ doubles team of Rahul Gogineni and Ryan Robinson won two of its three matches — defeating Heights’ Matt Holderbach and Moritz Winter, 8-7 (3), and Seaman’s Luis Gonzalez and Paul Cox, 8-4, but falling, 8-3, to Topeka West’s Brian Reynolds and Phil Carr.

While there was a lot of talk about numbers Tuesday, Wedel said the most important numerals he preached to his players were the ones relating to tennis IQ.

“Tennis IQ isn’t like a person’s regular IQ,” Wedel said. “You could have a bad day and score 65, then come back the next day and have an IQ of 200.

“At this point in the season we need to be have a solid number, and I think today we showed some improvements in that area.”