On Monday morning, the CHS girls’ tennis team traveled to St. Joseph to face off in the round of 16 for the MSHSAA team state tournament with winners advancing to quarterfinals that afternoon. Chillicothe had to face off against Savannah’s team for the fourth time this season, never previously winning a dual against them this season. The final outcome was the same again on this day, but the team played their best tennis of the season with a much more solid showing against the strong SHS team.
As in all other duals, the day started off with Doubles. Washburn & Garr faced off against their common SHS foe Blake & Till. Chillicothe’s #1 pair went up quickly 5-1, but then they let the savages back in the match at a 5-5 tie. After that scare, Chillicothe’s duo took control again and finished the match 8-5. On the two courts next to them, BeVelle & Crowe and Clark & Shira played great tennis with long rallies, strong ground strokes, and consistent serves, but it was not enough to overpower the dominant SHS #2 and #3 pairs. The other team was just slightly more consistent and eventually won their matches 4-8 each.
Then, the entire team moved to Singles play simultaneously. The toughest part of postseason singles play is that it shifts to two sets of six game play instead of pro-8 singular sets. This pushed most singles matches past the hour mark for most of the team. Every court was highly competitive and showcased beautiful high school tennis for the large Chillicothe crowd to watch. Both coaches counted rallies lasting 20-30 hits on multiple courts at the same time as well as many matches going to deuce scores. First up, the #4 court finished with SHS beating CHS. Next, the #3 match went the same way. This put the team score at 4-1 and looking nearly over on two other courts. However, Bianca Clark played a doozy of a match — starting off down 1-5 in her first set. She battled back to win six of her next seven games in a row, taking the first set to a tie break. Even the tiebreak was incredibly close, but she squeezed out a win 7-5 in that tense moment. Clark’s grit and mental strength allowed all her teammates to continue their matches, so the team match would not get called early. As she continued into her long second set, Rylee Washburn also mounted an incredible comeback on the #1 court. She had dropped the first set to Savannah’s two-time state medalist Alvarez 3-6. Washburn played spectacular tennis in that first set but couldn’t seem to break Alvarez. Then, she found herself down 1-5 in the second set and one game away from the entire team match being lost. Like her teammate, Rylee battled hard and won five straight games, which is an unheard of accomplishment against a player like Alvarez. Because of this added time to keep playing, Chillicothe’s #2 Isabella Garr was granted just a big enough time window to close out her match and get Chillicothe their second team point on the day. As Washburn and Clark had taken the leads on their court and continued to fight, sadly the #6 match concluded with a fifth and final loss for Chillicothe, so Clark and Washburn left their matches officially marked as Unfinished.
Coaches Chambers and Pyrtle knew the day would be marked with incredibly difficult head-to-head matches and had simply instructed their players to go out and hit with no fear. To play tough and hard with no regrets. They saw that on every court and felt very proud to finish their team season with such high level play, especially to end with such exciting matches for their seniors’ last ever singles’ matches. On Friday, Washburn and Garr will compete in the individual state tournament for Doubles to complete the entire season.
Final results:
Washburn & Garr beat Blake & Till 8-5.
BeVelle & Crowe lost to Alvarez & Moore 4-8.
Clark & Shira lost to Fischer & Alexander 4-8.
Washburn was unfinished with Alvarez 3-6, 6-5 . . .
Garr beat Blake 6-4, 6-2.
BeVelle lost to Till 1-6, 4-6.
Crowe lost to Fischer 0-6, 1-6.
Clark was unfinished with Moore 7-6 (tiebreak 7-5), 3-4 . . .
Keonnia Morgan lost to Alexander 1-6, 1-6.
