Optimism is running high on the courts of White River High’s girls tennis team with the return of its top singles and doubles players.

Last season’s No. 1 singles player senior Rachel Hoflack returns for the Hornets, as does Morgan Wilson, also a senior, at No. 2 singles.

Senior Haley Havelock and sophomore Courtney Hall, who played the second half of the season together as the Hornets’ No. 1 doubles team, also return.

Hoflack, Havelock and Hall were the Hornets’ best shot at postseason play last spring, coming up shy of qualifying for the district tournament.

Coach Jason Swaser said his No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams were in the air. But with 25 girls on the court, a number of them beginners that Swaser will keep on the team, there are plenty of choices and combinations.

The Hornets finished 2009 with a near even win-loss record and start the season with a league match at 3:30 p.m. Monday at Auburn Mountainview.