CHAMPAIGN — For the sake of what’s coming to town on Saturday, it’s a good thing Centennial girls’ tennis coach Jason Zumwalt was a member of Dunlap’s 1995 state team.

With the University of Illinois resurfacing the Atkins Tennis Center courts this fall, Centennial had to cancel its 16-team Charger Invite, which annually features some of the best girls’ tennis talent across the state.

Wanting to make a splash in his first season as the girls’ coach at Centennial, Zumwalt got right to work.

“I’m really good friends with Dunlap’s assistant coach, and I’m very familiar with their program. I reached out, and he said, ‘Let’s get something going,’” Zumwalt said. “Wheaton Warrenville South’s coach reached out to me and said, ‘We look forward to coming to Champaign every year. Can we still do something?’ and they helped me get Hinsdale South. We actually put it together within 24 hours. I was pretty pumped about it.”

Just like that, the Chargers had scheduled three of the state’s best teams to come to Lindsay Tennis Center at 9 a.m. on Saturday for a quad match.

“I’m very excited,” Centennial junior No. 1 singles player and captain Ria Modi said. “It’s very special because not every team gets to do this. In past years, I’ve never experienced this, so it’s pretty special. It’s going to help our team improve.”

And saying the Chargers are hosting some of the best teams in the state is no stretch.

Dunlap has finished third in Class 1A in each of the last two years, and the Eagles return fifth-place state singles finisher Anna Yu and sixth-place doubles player Isabella Gusso. Hinsdale South was last year’s 1A runner-up. The Hornets graduated state singles champion Chloe Goins but bring back third-place finisher Addy Filipiak. Wheaton Warrenville South won the ultra-competitive 2A Naperville Sectional a year ago and return the state quarterfinal doubles duo of Riley and Reese Lepsi.

In other words, Zumwalt is throwing his team into the fire.

“We’d rather get thrown into the mix and get to see where we want to be,” Zumwalt said. “Hopefully, we can go into this weekend with a little confidence and say, ‘This is where we want to be. We’ve got a ton of work to do to get there, but let’s not put a ceiling on where we can be. Let’s play against some of the elite players in the state and build on that.’ I want to see what we’re made of. I want to see them dig deep. I don’t care what the score is, we’re going to play hard and compete for every point.”

And it doesn’t get any easier after Saturday, as the Chargers host Mahomet-Seymour on Labor Day before getting into their tough Big 12 Conference schedule. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Even if I’m losing or our team is losing, we still have to put in as much energy as possible,” Modi said. “If you have the energy and motivation — our coach motivates us so much — it really helps. It’s been amazing (playing for Zumwalt). I can tell I’ve been improving.”

Even with the reputation of these three visiting teams on Saturday, don’t count out Centennial. Zumwalt admitted the Chargers are on the tail end of a rebuild, but he also emphasized that opponents can’t pencil in a win against them, and they’re hoping seeing this level of competition will propel them into a successful rest of the season.

“If we got a couple wins, it would just be icing on the cake,” Zumwalt said. “We’re not going in thinking we’re going to lose by any means, but we know how difficult the task is. We’re going to come in with good attitudes to compete for every point. If we got a couple wins, that would just shoot our confidence through the roof. This is going to be a great stepping board to push us into all these other great teams we’re going to play. We’re going to get better every day and prepare for next season. Not to say we’re throwing anything away, but we’re going to be a tough team to beat next year. I promise you that.”