After 10 grueling hours at the St. Joe Noyes courts, the stellar Lady Hornets pair of Lexy Smith and Lydia Bonderer are headed back to the Missouri State Championship tournament. Their day started as the #1 doubles seed after winning all their common matches in the district throughout the season. First, they played Maryville’s #2 doubles entry, who they beat 6-0, 6-1. Then, in round two, they also easily beat Trenton’s #1 pair 6-0, 6-1. After a very long break, they finally played their semi-final round against Richmond, the four seed on the day. Richmond played well, but Smith and Bonderer still dominated and won 6-1, 6-0, sealing their return trip to state as a top two finisher. But that wasn’t enough for this pair. They wanted the championship as competitors but also for better seeding in the state tournament. The district championship match saw a rematch of the conference championship between Chillicothe and Savannah’s top pair. Savannah was a worthy opponent with strong serving and lots of great net play, but Smith and Bonderer were unstoppable, again winning the match 6-1, 6-1.
After assessing the day, Coach Chambers noted, “I didn’t realize until we took the bracket down to keep that Lex and Lyd only dropped five games all day. That’s insane at such a competitive point in the season. I’ve coached many great athletes, but winning districts that handily is pretty unprecedented. This pair is playing the very best tennis of their careers right now, and it is so fun to watch! Lots of people think they make it look easy, but what they are accomplishing is terribly difficult. They are masters on a doubles court and spectacularly athletic.”
Additionally, Coach Chambers noted that all her athletes played their best tennis at the district tournament. The second doubles pair entered were Isabel Nagel and Anya Moore. They came into the day with discussions of a seed because of their conference medal, but they came up just one spot short of a seed. Therefore, they played a feeder match first on the bracket, easily beating Richmond’s lower pair. Then, they had a rematch with Maryville’s higher pair and the number three bracket seed. The match was over 1.5 hours long and back in forth with lead changes almost every changeover. Unfortunately, the Chillicothe pair lost a first set tiebreaker by just two points, and then slowed to lose the second set by three games. But Nagel and Moore made Maryville earn every point, and truly performed better than any other lower entry doubles pair from any team that day.
In singles, freshman London Douglas and sophomore Jocelynn Albrecht also played top-notch tennis against a tough singles bracket of most schools’ top ranked players. Albrecht had to face Cameron’s number one player first in the morning, who she had narrowly beat out at conference the week before. She lost the first set quickly, but then had a fantastic mental reset to take the second set clearly. Then, they went to a championship tiebreak that was neck-and-neck, but Albrecht came up just three points shy of the win. On the court beside her, Douglas first played LeBlond’s lower entry, who she quickly beat with clean, deep hitting. Then, she faced Excelsior Spring’s top player who had just won fourth at conference the week before. Douglas dropped the first set rather quickly even though she was hitting well, but then she really fought back in the second fact, going up three games to zero at first. However, Excelsior then turn on her power hitting to take the rest of the set and the match. This proved to be a valuable learning experience for both underclassmen who should both be returning to the varsity lineup again next year.