Newport Knights girls tennis head coach Ryan Pang is brimming with confidence even though the 2015 regular season is in its infancy.

Pang, who is in his third season as the Knights girls tennis team’s head coach, believes this is the year his team can challenge for the Class 4A KingCo League title.

“I’m expecting us to win league. I’m just really excited. Last year we didn’t have a lot of standout players but we had good depth and finished in fourth place behind Skyline, Issaquah and Garfield. This year we have a bunch of good players and a lot of returners so I expect us to finish in first. Our depth is going to be amazing,” Pang said. “We have five really good freshmen and on top of that we have a lot of good senior leadership. I know that it is a bit of a cliche to say that, but we actually do.”

Pang said senior team captains Erica Hsia, Kari Nasu and Sara Park epitomize what it means to be reliable.

“They all do a really good job of taking care of the team really well,” Pang said. “With the amount of talent we have, we can run really good practices. The girls are pushing each other more this year than in the past couple of years. The freshman set the tone at practice regarding the atmosphere and intensity level. I can’t wait for us to play our first couple of matches.”

Pang said freshman Vivian Glozman is the top freshman tennis player in Washington.

“She should be able to win state,” he said.

Nasu said having a talented troupe of freshmen players on the varsity squad makes the team that much better.

“I feel like it motivates us. The fact that we have a lot of new people on the team is exciting too,” Nasu said. “It encourages us to do more bonding events.”

Hsia echoed Nasu’s sentiment.

“We’re hoping to win (Class 4A) KingCo and take a few people to state. We’ll see. You never know what can happen,” Hsia said.

Hsia said Pang, who played tennis at Santa Clara University in the late 1990s and early 2000s, is a great teacher of the sport.

“I really like Ryan as a coach because he just knows a lot about tennis. He played in college (Santa Clara) so he really knows what he is talking about. It’s really nice to hear some of the tips he has for us,” she said.

Shaun Scott: 425-453-5045; sscott@bellevuereporter.com