On a beautiful Monday evening at Danner Park, the lady hornets’ tennis team faced off against the lady owls from Marshall. While Chillicothe lost the varsity dual 3-6, the team still saw many moments of success. In their final month as Chillicothe tennis players, seniors Rylee Washburn and Isabella Garr went 3-0 for the night, snatching the only varsity team wins in doubles and singles. In addition, the rest of the varsity squad played strong, consistent tennis but were simply outmatched by the solid Marshall varsity. Lastly, the Chillicothe JV team went 9-0 on the night, playing confident tennis in their second to last match of the season.
During the doubles portion of the varsity match, BeVelle and Crowe played long rallies with fantastic serving, but they couldn’t seem to break the lady owls who outlasted them in the end. On the court next to them, however, Washburn and Garr slayed in their doubles match. Chillicothe’s #1 doubles pair took an early lead and never looked back. Both players’ net games were on fire, and Coach Chambers felt they looked at the top of their game much like they did at the end of the season last year when they made their state run. This is the perfect timing to maximize their potential as they step into conference and district championships over the next eight days. In the final varsity doubles match, Clark and Shira started slow with an initial score down 1-7. But Coach Pyrtle was very proud to see them battle back hard and mentally reset, eventually only losing 5-8. This was a step in their partnership and development that needed to mature, so the coaches were thrilled to see more mental toughness from the pair.
In singles play, Marshall proved quite solidly consistent all night. While the team was full of power serves or fancy techniques, they just kept every ball in bounds. Chillicothe was only able to obtain wins in Washburn’s #1 singles match and Garr’s #2 singles match. However, all six of Chillicothe’s singles matches were respectable, strong, long rally matches. The hornets made a strong showing but just couldn’t close enough matches for a team win.
In JV play, all team members got to play long, full pro-6 matches because Marshall had enough players to play all of Chillicothe’s girls. Each partnership looked strong as they’ve grown accustomed to each other now, and every pair was able to pull out a win even the players who went into tense tiebreaks. Coaches Chambers and Pyrtle are excited to continue seeing these athletes grow in future years.
Scores were as follows:
Rylee Washburn & Isabella Garr beat Avery Evans & Holly Huston 8-4.
Bryton BeVelle & Micah Crowe lost to Alizah Russell & Bailey Kueker 3-8.
Bianca Clark & Keeley Shira lost to Kennedy King & Dianna Escarate 5-8.
Washburn beat Evans 8-4.
Garr beat Huston 8-3.
BeVelle lost to Russell 3-8.
Crowe lost to Kueker 2-8.
Clark lost to King 2-8.
Keonnia Morgan lost to Escarate 1-8.
Keonnia Morgan & Sarah George beat Kaylen Alvarez & Bailey Riley 7-6 (tiebreak 7-5).
Summer Gaston & Rian Mathews beat Kellin Fann & Sofie Messing 6-4.
Jasmine McLean & Sarah Boon beat Kelly Rubio & Heidi Jimenez 6-1.
Sophia Littleton & Anya Moore beat Samine Salmeron & Kate-Lynn O’Donnell 6-3.
Arisha Shafiq & Trixie Leppin beat Fatima Rubio & Damaris Escarate 6-1.
Kierra Williams & Leighton Kelly beat Laila Trelow & Brianna Carrillo 6-3.
Lexi Lybarger beat Piper Brunson 6-0.
Summer Gatson & Rian Mathews beat Michelle Lin & Kady Dickson-Sayers 6-4.
Jasmine McLean & Sarah Boon beat Ashley Turcios & Lauren Chaney-King 6-1.
