The dominance that Katie Bennett displayed in her Franklin tennis career during the early and mid-1990s might be viewed differently had she excelled as a singles player.
This isn’t to suggest history isn’t already in her corner.
As a sophomore, Bennett (who currently goes by Katie Day) teamed with senior Heather Mosburg to finish the season with a fourth-place state finish in doubles competition.
“To be honest, it kind of surprised us to be there. It was just an accomplishment to get there,” said the 44-year-old Day. “At that point, Heather was a senior, so that was it for us as a doubles team.”
Though Mosburg was moving on, Bennett was just getting started.
The back half of her time as a Grizzly Cub found her paired with her classmate and friend, Staci Morrow, the team’s No. 3 singles player the previous season. They won 58 of 59 matches in two seasons, winning state as juniors with a spotless 30-0 record.
Bennett and Morrow defeated Jennifer Marlow and Becky Tragesser of Rushville, 7-5, 6-4, in the 1994 finale. They became the first of three girls doubles tandems from Johnson County to win state, with the other two representing Center Grove.
“Staci and I played basketball and volleyball together, so we were already friends,” Day said. “She had really strong groundstrokes and I had strong serves and was aggressive at the net. In the match against Rushville, I remember us being down at some point. We were a little nervous at first, but we got more aggressive and came back.”
As seniors, Bennett and Morrow were 28-0 before losing at semistate.
A middle hitter in volleyball, Bennett also played in the post each basketball season. She attended the University of Evansville for two years, playing tennis for the Aces, before transferring to Indiana University, where she graduated in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing.
Day now works as a clinical research scientist at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, a company she’s been with the past 15 years. She lives in Brownsburg and is the mother to two sons, Jadon (14) and Brandon (13). She is engaged to Jim Vandergriff; the couple plans to wed next June 30.
She was a little older than Jadon is now when she helped Franklin girls tennis bring home the 1992 sectional title. The Grizzly Cubs also won it Bennett’s senior season.
Mosburg continued her tennis career at Franklin College, while Morrow did the same at the University of Indianapolis.
Even surrounded by such talent, the daughter of then-Franklin boys basketball coach Steve Bennett did more than enough to become one of the premier players in school history.
“What I remember about Katie was her mental toughness,” longtime Franklin girls tennis coach Rusty Hughes said. “She was a woman of few words. Very quiet. Very reserved. But she had a goal in mind, and that was to win state.”
Mission accomplished.
