Andrea Chen concentrates on her return during Free State's tennis quadrangular Wednesday at FSHS.

First-year Free State High tennis coach Keith Pipkin could tell junior Andrea Chen was being a little hard on herself when recent tournament outings ended with more losses than victories for the No. 2 singles player.

But Pipkin also noticed Chen continued playing smart, effortful tennis through it all, and showing improvement.

“You can be getting whooped in a match, but every loss, you’re gonna learn more from a loss than you are a win,” the FSHS coach said Wednesday after watching Chen go 3-0 at the Firebirds’ home quadrangular, one day after she suffered setbacks at a stacked St. Thomas Aquinas Invitational.

Though the Tuesday grind tired Chen and some outcomes were “sort of rough,” she considered it a good day of competition. She faced a number of different styles of players and thought the preparation made her home wins the following day a little easier.

“I think it impacted my confidence level for today,” Chen said, “just because I had a few good matches (Tuesday), and even though I lost some of them, you know what you did well against a really good person and you can bring that with you to another tournament — which I think is what I did today.”

Chen fell behind early in her opening match against Olathe Northwest, but once she broke service she began rolling and thought to herself: “OK, I’ve got this.”

With the help of Chen, No. 1 singles freshman Kate Piper (2-1), the No. 1 doubles team of Caitlin and Ali Dodd (2-1) and No. 2 doubles team Rachel Walters and Carter Stacey (2-1), the Firebirds beat ONW and Shawnee Mission North at the quad, before splitting with Shawnee Mission Northwest.

Chen’s success made her coach smile, because although she always showers positivity and support on her teammates, Pipkin was pleased to see her get to enjoy her own accomplishments.

“I’m always a big believer that it takes a bunch of failures to gain that success,” the coach said. “Losses are just a path to victory in my opinion.”

With each passing season, Chen has grown more comfortable as a member of the FSHS tennis program. She remembers how shy she felt as a freshman and how that began to change last year, as she really made an effort to cheer on and support her teammates during competition.

“Now I’m just out of my shell,” she said. “Whenever they need me, I’ll be there yelling, which is probably pretty obnoxious.”

Although she admits she can be a pessimistic tennis player, when it comes to her own results, it appears she’s beginning to trend in the other direction.

“I’m hoping,” Chen said, with a laugh.

Free State 3, Olathe Northwest 1

No. 1 singles — Umera Nabi, ONW, def. Kate Piper, FSHS, 8-5

No. 2 singles — Andrea Chen, FSHS, def. Regan Aufderheide, 8-5

No. 1 doubles — Caitlin Dodd-Ali Dodd, FSHS, def. A. Ochner-A. Christen, ONW, 8-0

No. 2 doubles — Rachel Walters-Carter Stacey, FSHS, def. M. Fulton-M. Hamilton, ONW, 8-1

FSHS 4, Shawnee Mission North 0

No. 1 singles — Piper, FSHS, def. Karen Vargas, SMN, 8-0

No. 2 singles — Chen, FSHS, def. Isabel Rodriguez, SMN, 8-0

No. 1 doubles — C. Dodd-A. Dodd, FSHS, def. J. Flores-A. Gonzalez, SMN, 8-1

No. 2 doubles — Walters-Stacey, FSHS, def. C. Peterson-A. Williams, SMN, 8-0

FSHS 2, SM Northwest 2

No. 1 singles — Piper, FSHS, def. Katherine Strohm, SMNW, 8-2

No. 2 singles — Chen, FSHS, def. Emmalee Rose, SMNW, 8-5

No. 1 doubles — Colleen Freeman-Lexy Drummond, SMNW, def. C. Dodd-A. Dodd, FSHS, 8-6 (7-3)

No. 2 doubles — Lilly Oliver-Carly Sommerla, SMNW, def. Walters-Stacey, FSHS, 8-2