Perhaps no Kansas University sports team was hit so hard by graduation as tennis.

Fortunately for KU, second-year coach Amy Hall feels the losses — as large as they are — can be absorbed with minimal damage, thanks to returning talent and a ballyhooed incoming class.

KU lost three impact seniors from last year’s team, which finished 7-16 overall and 4-7 in Big 12 Conference play — Emily Haylock, Courtney Steinbock and Kristin Steinbock.

With their departure go three of the top four singles players from the Big 12 tournament, as well as all but one piece of the top two doubles teams from the tournament, where the Jayhawks went 1-1 to finish the season.

This summer, the Jayhawks parted ways, but all of them are expected to be in top shape when fall workouts get under way.

“A few have gone home to train and play in some college tournaments,” Hall said. “They’re all required to play at least two tournaments this summer to stay sharp.”

When they come back, they’ll be introduced to the newest member of the team, assistant coach Frank Polito, though he’s not exactly a rookie in the KU coaching family.

Polito replaced Troy Bray as Hall’s top assistant in early July, and it’ll be his second tour of duty in Lawrence.

Polito was an interim head coach in 1996 after Chuck Merzbacher’s resignation and also was an assistant on the now-defunct KU men’s tennis team in the fall of ’96.

“I am fired up to be a Jayhawk again,” Polito said. “I am looking forward to help carry on the tradition here at Kansas.”

Once the team gathers this month, the competition will begin to fill the top of the ladder. Junior Christine Skoda and sophomore Brittany Brown are proven returnees, having gone 17-13 together in doubles and garnering at least seven dual victories in singles, too.

In addition to Skoda and Brown, Hall said she also was excited about the three incoming freshmen — Anna Jackson and Lauren Hommell, both natives of Georgia, and Stephanie Smith of Salina Central.

All three could had an immediate impact on a KU squad looking to improve on a ninth-place finish in the conference — and overcome the loss of Haylock and the Steinbock twins.

“It’s going to be tough to do,” Hall said, “because they were pretty tough players.”