Story by Coach Ed Douglas

     The Lady Hornets had a great day at Sectionals at Cameron Monday qualifying 3 of their 4 entries for the State Tournament at Springfield next week and almost had an unbelievably day with almost getting all four entries to State.
     As expected (now) 3 time State qualifiers Sydnie Whiteside and Ali Stephens and medalists the last two years at State (2nd and 4th last year and 5th and 6th the year before) won their Sectional matches fairly easily. Syndie defeated District 15 Runner up, Maggie Mohn of Excelsior Springs 6-0 6-0.
     “Syndie is tenacious and unfortunately for opponents shows no mercy. This makes her 36-0 for the year". Ali Stephens play District Winner Emily Nissen from St Pius and Ali won 6-1, 6-2.
     “Nissen was a good player and this was not an easy match but Ali knew what she had to do to win and she did it. “Qualifying for State for 3 years in a row in Singles (Syndie and Ali) is quite an accomplishment not even considering how well they have done at the State Tournament.”
     District 16 winners in Doubles Jozie Reeter and Kelly Westphal defeated Benton’s team of Audrey Slivey and Nicole Bonham 6-2 6-2.
     “Jozie and Kelly played fantastic, clearly peaking at the right time and playing their best match of the year by far” said Coach Ed Douglas. These Benton teams had just last week finished first and second at the MEC conference and we finished 3rd and 5th so they were clearly the favorites. But I knew we were getting better each day, particularly with all the doubles drills our teams do. So in a week we went from losing to Benton 4-6 4-6 to winning 6-2 6-2.
     “I knew we were playing better all the time but that is still quite a turnaround in a week.
     Our second doubles team, Chelsea Long and Renee Downing lost a heart breaker to Benton’s District 15 Winner Kat Brown and Destiny Murphy 6-4 4-6 6-4.
     “I was heart broken for Chelsea and Renee because they were so close and just fell slightly short. But I can also say they also played by far the best match they had played all year. Their improvement has been exponential. They gave it everything they had and just were a little short of pulling off a huge upset. “Remember Renee is a first year varsity player and our # 5 and #6 girls are playing against everyone else’s #1 and #2 players, especially since most schools put their top players in doubles to avoid Sydnie and Ali.
     “I couldn’t be more proud of our entire team. On a scale of 1 to 10 our team played an 11 today. They really put it all together at the right time.
     Saturday, the Hornets expect to play team Sectionals (round of 16) at Marshall Saturday at 9 am. We play St Pius in the morning. If we win we expect to play the winner of Marshall vs Pembroke at 1 in the State Quarterfinals. Pembroke probably is the favorite to win the State Tournament having already defeated last year’s team State Champion Barstow 5-0.
     Individual State is a week from Friday and then Saturday at Springfield