The Chillicothe girls’ tennis team traveled once again to Noyes’ Tennis Complex this week to battle the LeBlond team in an MEC dual. The night started off strong with two doubles wins even though Chillicothe’s #4 Micah Crowe, #7 Keeley Shira, and #8 Sarah George had all taken a rest day. Veteran seniors Rylee Washburn and Isabella Garr squeaked out an intense match in a tie break to give the Hornets one win while Bryton BeVelle and Keonnia Morgan played a great match in #2 Doubles but barely lost 6-8. However, in another highlight of the night, varsity newcomer junior Bianca Clark and the team’s typical #10 player sophomore Rian Mathews grabbed a very hard fought doubles match, winning 8-5. Monday was Rian’s first ever varsity match as she stepped up to fill the big shoes of Chillicothe’s absent players. She played confidently, and the CHS coaches’ were excited she was able to see some varsity playing time and success before she aims for bigger goals with varsity next year.
Going into singles’ play, the lady hornets were at 2-1, but individual play ended up to be far too tough against the high quality LeBlond team as the lady hornets dropped five of the six singles matches. Junior Keonnia Morgan dominantly handled her singles match to help the final team score end up 3-6 in favor of Leblond. And even the #6 singles match resulted in a loss, Coaches Chambers and Pyrtle were excited to give sophomore Summer Gatson (typically team #9) her first ever varsity match as well. Summer gained a lot of confidence in her ground stroke throughout the match and felt motivated to work harder this off-season now that she has witnessed varsity level play.
Junior varsity also saw a tough night of play losing all of their matchups especially under short sets of four since LeBlond could only field four JV players. The hornets play again Tuesday night at Excelsior Springs in a team dual.
Monday’s specific scores were as follows:
Rylee Washburn & Isabella Garr beat Emily Weddle & Iris Ideker 9-8 (tiebreak 7-4).
Bryton BeVelle & Keonnia Morgan lost to Hillary Bui & Ireland Robertson 6-8.
Bianca Clark & Rian Mathews beat Kimber Weber & Demi Swope 8-5.
Washburn lost to Weddle 6-8.
Garr lost to Ideker 0-8.
BeVelle lost to Bui 2-8.
Clark lost to Robertson 3-8.
Morgan beat Weber 8-4.
Summer Gatson lost to Swope 1-8.
Jasmine McLean & Sarah Boon lost to their opponents 1-4.
Sophia Littleton & Anya Moore lost to their opponents 4-5 (tiebreak 5-7).
Arisha Shafiq & Trixie Leppin lost to their opponents 1-4.
Kierra Williams & Leighton Kelly lost to their opponents 1-4.
Lexy Lybarger & Arisha Shafiq lost to their opponents 1-4.
