(Story by Ed Douglas)
     The Lady Hornets had a special day in St Joseph on Tuesday winning all three individual State Sectional matches to qualify three entries for the State Tournament in Springfield. As expected, last years state qualifiers, Sydnie Whiteside and Ali Stephens who also finished 5th and 6th in state respectively repeated as singles qualifiers again. Sydnie defeated Alllison Vaughn of St Pius 6-0 and 6-0 and Ali defeated Emily Nissen of St Pius 6-1 6-0. Our top two players in my book are superstars and you almost feel sorry for their opponents they way they can dominate and they did again. This is two years in a row to qualify for state in singles for both of them, which is special and they are both only juniors.
     The surprise of the day had to be Kelly Westphal and Chelsea Long of Chillicothe defeating Erica McDonald and Ruth Francis of St Pius 6-1 3-6 6-1. This was an upset and a terrific win for these girls. "Kelly and Chelsea have really improved a great deal in the last couple of weeks, first winning the MEC doubles championship, then qualifying for Sectionals with second in the district and know winning the district. "In the District finals, Kelly and Chelsea won the first set and then played a little tentative with the lead. Today, it appeared that this could happen again after we lost the second set. But before the third set started we talked about where they were and how much they had accomplished and what to concentrate on in the third set and they executed to perfection in the third set. With each game you could just feel our girls playing better, more aggressive and more confident and the reverse was happening with their opponent. " I couldn't be more proud of our girls"
     That is really quite and accomplishment to send your top four players to State next week at Springfield.
     Next up for the Lady Hornets as a team is Sectionals this Saturday the 19th at Chillicothe at 9 am at Danner. There will be three other District winners here Saturday along with us , Barstow, Grain Valley and St Pius.    Unfortunately we play Barstow in the first round. Barstow beat Pembroke in their District and I expect them to win the State Team title. They won 1st and 2nd in singles in their District and 1st in doubles. Their #1 Singles player won the State Singles Tournament last year. It is unfortunate we couldn't play St Pius or Grain Valley first. As an example, we just beat St Pius' players at individual district, but the draw is what it is.
     Some of the matches will be very interesting and entertaining. Sydnie Whiteside #5 in the State last year against the State Champ and Ali Stephens #6 in the state against their #2 player who is going to state in singles this year. We hope all our fans will come to the match Saturday at nine. We will have added bleachers for the match, concessions and most importantly there will be some really good tennis.