On Friday and Saturday, the Chillicothe High School lady hornets’ tennis team competed in the massive Joplin Tournament for the fourth year running. Coach Chambers says the team travels this great distance for the option to play much larger schools outside the small Class 1 tennis teams like Chillicothe. She recognizes that playing this many matches against such tough competition is a great way to start the season for conditioning, growth, and mental toughness that will all pay off in the smaller district and conference tournaments they see in October.
Overall, 32 teams from four states met to compete in pool play on Friday and then move on to appropriately-matched bracket play on Saturday. For the first time ever, the lady hornets won a match against a larger school on day one of play, so they were placed in a stronger day two bracket than previous years, where they also found a team win on Saturday. Coach Chambers said her athletes played solid, clean tennis all day to proudly make sure they never lost 0-5, even to the giant Class 3 Missouri schools they were facing, which is the largest in Missouri tennis. In fact, returning state medalists Lexy Smith and Lydia Bonderer earned three hard-fought doubles wins in highly competitive, large school match-ups, losing only to private school Barstow all weekend. Additionally, returning starters Isabel Nagel and Anya Moore found multiple wins on the weekend, while newcomers Jocelynn Albrecht and London Douglas found multiple wins as well. Plus, playing time was seen for underclassmen Halle Gabrielson & Merlot Cooper. The team finished 23rd out of 32 teams, which was the highest of any Class 1 school in attendance.
Results were as follows:
Team lost 1-4 to Liberty North
- Smith & Bonderer won #1 Doubles 8-5
- Nagel & Albrecht lost #2 Doubles 1-8
- Moore lost #1 Singles 2-8
- Douglas lost #2 Singles 3-8
- Gabrielson lost #3 Singles 2-8
- Smith & Bonderer won #1 Doubles 8-4
- Nagel & Albrecht lost #2 Doubles 2-8
- Moore lost #1 Singles 1-8
- Douglas lost #2 Singles 3-8
- Gabrielson lost #3 Singles 0-8
- Moore & Cooper lost #1 Doubles 2-8
- Douglas & Albrecht won #2 Doubles 8-5
- Smith won #1 Singles 8-3
- Nagel won #2 Singles 8-4
- Bonderer won #3 Singles 8-0
- Smith & Bonderer won #1 Doubles 8-8 TB 7-4
- Nagel & Moore won #2 Doubles 8-6
- Douglas lost #1 Singles 3-8
- Albrecht lost #2 Singles 5-8
- Cooper lost #3 Singles 1-8
- Smith & Bonderer lost #1 Doubles 6-8
- Douglas & Albrecht won #2 Doubles 8-2
- Nagel lost #1 Singles 1-8
- Moore lost #2 Singles 6-8
- Gabrielson lost #3 Singles 3-8
- Nagel & Albrecht won #1 Doubles 9-7
- Douglas & Cooper lost #2 Doubles 2-8
- Smith won #1 Singles 8-5
- Bonderer won #2 Singles 8-3
- Moore won #3 Singles 8-1