Story by Coach Ed Douglas

     The Lady Hornets advanced to the State Quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over St Pius Saturday in Marshall. The Hornets sweep the doubles Whiteside/Westphal defeating Witherow/and Lanning 8-1. Stephens/Reeter defeated Nissen/Kallenberger 8-1 and Long/Downing defeated Pittala/Balient 8-0.
      “St Pius had beaten Benton in the District Finals, a team that was 16-2 for the year after losing all three doubles and then coming back to win 5 of the 6 singles. We wanted to sweep the doubles too but then we felt very comfortable with Sydnie Whiteside and Ali Stephens knowing we were guaranteed two more wins in singles. That is what happened. Syd and Ali won quickly both winning 6-0 6-1 over Emiy Nissen and Maggie Witherow.
     At the time Kelly Westphal was up 6-2 3-0 over Sarah Lanning, Jozie Reeter was up 5-4 over Kaitlyn Pittala , Chelsea Long was down 4-5 to Erin Balint and Renee Downing was up 6-2 2-2 over Amy Kallinberger.
     “I am pretty comfortable we would have won several more matches but it made it nice to finish it quick and not have to worry about strange things happening like what happened to Benton, we took care of business in a very workman like way.”
     In the other Sectional Semifinal Pembroke defeated Marshall 5-0 setting up a State quarterfinal match of Chillicothe versus Pembroke.
     “We knew that Pembroke is the favorite to win the team Championship this year so they are obviously very good. Their number 1 player this year didn’t play last year because she was playing in National Tournaments instead. Pembroke always has the very best players from 1 million population metropolitan area and so it is very difficult competition:.
     Pembroke sweep the doubles with Ellison Rooney and Cindy Wong defeating Sydnie Whiteside and Kelly Westphal, Yurie Heard and Anya Loboda defeating Ali Stephens and Jozie Reeter and Emily Ramza and Veronica Leekontova defeating Chelsea Long and Renee Downiing.
     “I felt a little like Sundance Kid saying an understatement to Butch Cassity while being chased and shot at by the top law man in the area, “They are really very good” .
     The singles was more of the same. Kelly and Jozie lost at about the same time to Wong and Ramza which ended the match. At that time Chelsea was down 4-5 and Ali was about even. I think Ali would have actually won at #2 but we didn’t get to finish it. Sydnie was losing to Yurie Heard who is a unbelievable player but their match is technically an incomplete because it didn’t finish, so Sydnie is still undefeated this year at 36-0 going into State.
     If we had played Syd and Ali together in doubles we might have won that match too but we choose to play it safe in the Quarterfinals against St Pius and you have to use the same lineup in both rounds.
     “We knew Pembroke was a great team and no one expected us to win. We played hard as always and with pride and gave it our best effort. I was certainly proud of how our girls represented us”
     With the Quarterfinal loss the Lady Hornets finished the year at 19-3, having gotten to the State Quarterfinals, won the District for the second straight year and won the first round of sectionals, in addition to winning the Conference for the third straight year and winning the 8 team Savannah/Benton tournament and the 8 team Excelsior Springs tournament.
     Additionally we qualified a doubles team and two singles player to the individual state tournament next week, Jozie and Kelly in doubles and Syd and Ali for the 3rd straight year. “our only loses for the year, other than to the team that I think will win the State Tournament, Pembroke, were to Barstow and Marshall 4-5. We finished higher in the State tournament than both of those teams which is some redemption to both those loses. “With a little better draw we might have gone a round farther but that is out of our control.
     “It has been a great season and Amanda and I are really proud of what the girls have been able to accomplish”