Kasey Gardiner of Greenhills School, the 2010 Washtenaw County Girls Tennis Player of the Year. (Melanie Maxwell | AnnArbor.com)

Great coaches and players often say that it’s not wins, but the losses that taught them the most. Lessons learned, they’ll preach for days, are more plentiful in defeat.

Greenhills School sophomore Kasey Gardiner has a lot to learn.

Two years into her high school tennis career and Gardiner is a perfect 44-0. Not only has the super sophomore never lost a match, she’s never so much as surrendered a set.

“When you’re talking about a Kasey Gardiner, you have to get in to the discussion of Emily Marker, Jessica Seyferth, Kendra Clark, the Hiniker sisters ... some of the best players ever to come out of this area,” says Greenhills coach Mark Randolph. “As great as those guys are, if you forced me to put my house on a match, I’d have to take Kasey Gardiner.

“I think she’s a special player, not just for our area, but for our state and she will evoke those discussions in terms of comparisons to the best.”

After winning a Division 4 state title at No. 1 singles in 2009, Gardiner, the 2010 AnnArbor.com Washtenaw County Player of the Year, seemed a shoo-in to win another. But after playing in three non-MHSAA events during the high school season (the MHSAA allows two) Gardiner was ruled ineligible days before the state championships.

“I was always under the impression that it was two (American Tennis Association) events you could play in and I played in an (International Tennis Federation) qualifier early in the season,” says Gardiner. “That it wasn’t an ATA event, and that I didn’t even get into the tournament, those two things made me not even consider (that it would count). I wouldn’t have played if I knew.”

A month after the fact, Gardiner chuckles at her misinterpretation of the rule. Her laughter has definitely replaced the tears that flowed when she learned she wouldn’t be able to compete at the state championships.

Missing out on the chance to become just the fourth player in state history to win four consecutive No. 1 singles wasn’t what Gardiner found crushing. It was that she wouldn’t be able to help the Gryphons defend their team title.

“Part of the attraction of high school tennis for Kasey is the opportunity to be part of something larger than herself, be part of a team,” says Randolph. “Whether or not she could have won, I don’t think that’s in question. But for her not to be able to fulfill that role on this team, to contribute those almost certain points, she just felt so terrible.”

“It was tough to see it happen to her,” says Kasey’s father, Todd Gardiner. “More than anything, I saw how badly she felt for her team, how she couldn’t be there to do her role. … We all learned from it. For those rules, we need to double check and reinterpret. That’s on mom and dad. That’s our bad.”

Gardiner says that, although she loves to play no matter what the setting, the team aspect of high school season is a welcome relief to the individual tournaments she frequents during the summer and rest of the school year.

Gardiner still attended the finals at Kalamazoo College, encouraging her teammates during Greenhills’ seventh-place performance. Even with a maximum five points from Gardiner, the Gryphons would have finished well out of first place, but that would have been easier to stomach than not playing.

“It was kind of sad that I didn’t get to play, but the most important thing to me was to support my team,” says Gardiner. “It was just kind of hard to be on the sideline.”

A five-star recruit and the top-ranked high school player in Michigan according to www.tennisrecruiting.net, Gardiner’s talent could certainly warrant a year-long ATA/ITF schedule. She was home-schooled in eighth grade to better suit her tournament schedule, but she says she has no intention of going that route again.

“High school tennis is an amazing experience for me. It’s definitely different because you’re playing for your team, not just for yourself,” says Gardiner, a 4.0 student. “I love going to high school in Michigan, love Greenhills, and love going to school.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.