Story by Coach
Sophie Chambers
On a very windy, cold Tuesday night, the Chillicothe
girls' tennis team traveled to Excelsior Springs High School to play
in the team's district semifinal matchup. The night ran in a typical
6-3 setup with three doubles matches first followed by six singles
matches. As in all postseason play, whenever a team earns a majority
of the wins, the match is called instantly without letting the
remaining matches finish. Chillicothe knew they were up for a hard
fight in #1 doubles as Excelsior's top pair had qualified for
individual state just days earlier. Seniors Micah Crowe and Keonnia
Morgan gave the match their all, but it was simply not enough to
overcome the powerful opponents. The same was true in the #2 Doubles
match where Jasmine McLean and Lydia Bonderer fought hard but lost
quickly to an Excelsior pair with wickedly strong spin serves.
However, Summer Gatson and Lexy Smith were able to really connect as
first-time partners and storm through their set for Chillicothe's
first team win of the night. The lady hornets moved into singles'
play down 1-2 as a team.
All six singles matches began at the same time
with all girls playing best two out of three sets. After about 45
minutes of grit and determination, seniors Sarah George and Bianca
Clark came up short on their courts, moving the team score to 1-4,
with three other teammates down a set on their courts. The night
looked almost over, but then the remaining courts all mounted a
valiant comeback effort. While those remaining seniors fought back
from their deficits, sophomore Jasmine McLean finished up a tight
battle to secure another Chillicothe win, making the team score 2-4.
On the court next to her, Keeley Shira was one game away from losing
her match when she won four games in a row to take her match to a
second set tiebreak. She squeaked out a set tiebreak win, which then
forced her match into a third set. In Missouri girls' tennis, third
sets are never played; instead, athletes must instantly play a
10-point championship tiebreak that counts as the third set. As
Shira battled through her second consecutive, intense tiebreak, #1
singles' player Crowe was dominating her second set and just one
game away from tying her opponent. However, on the other remaining
court, Morgan was in a very tight battle fighting desperately to
extend the night for her and her teammates, but she came up just
short before Shira or Crowe could finish. This caused the match to
be called at an overall score of 2-5, but all three coaches present
from both teams said it might have been a 4-5 type of night if they
could have finished all matches. While the score may not look close,
the fight and comebacks exemplified by most of the team really spoke
volumes on Tuesday night's courts.
The lady hornets finished their season 8-11 as a team.
The results for Tuesday's matches were as follows:
#1 Doubles Crowe & Morgan lost 4-8
#2 Doubles McLean and Bonderer lost 4-8
#3 Doubles Gatson and Smith won 8-2
#1 Singles Crowe & Stodden went unifinished
#2 Singles Morgan lost 2-6, 4-6
#3 Singles Clark lost 2-6, 2-6
#4 Singles Shira & Riegel went unfinished
#5 Singles McLean won 6-2, 6-3
#6 Singles George lost 2-6, 4-6
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