Seniors Rylee Washburn and Isabella Garr are the District Doubles Champions for Class 1, District 15 with MSHSAA after an exciting day of tennis in Trenton on Saturday. They are headed to the Sectionals Tournament for post-season play on Friday morning. In addition, their lady hornet teammates Bryton BeVelle, Micah Crowe, Bianca Clark, and Keeley Shira all medaled at the District Tournament as well.
On a very hot day for late September, the Chillicothe girls’ tennis program faced off against Trenton, Cameron, and Kirksville to see who could punch a ticket in Singles or Doubles for a trip to Sectionals. Only the District champions and runner-ups can move on in the season, so it proves to be a tough 8-man bracket — single elimination, do or die time. Entering the day, Washburn and Garr earned the #1 seed in their bracket with Clark and Shira earning the #3 seed, which is a pretty rare feat for a lower ranked doubles pair to accomplish. In singles, Bryton BeVelle got the #3 seed and Micah Crowe the #4 seed. All six lady hornets started off very strong earning a win in the first round through two full sets each as MSHSAA requires set play instead of Pro-8s in the postseason.
In the semi-finals, Washburn and Garr continued to steamroll through their competition winning their next two sets very quickly. Yet, their teammates faced much stiffer competition in that second round of play, which led to long matches in the midday sun. Eventually, these difficult opponents got the better of each player, bumping the other four Chillicothe players into the consolation bracket for a third place match. All of these young women played high-quality tennis including tons of strong hitting and long rallies. On one court, the crowd was getting quite excited to watch #4 Crowe battle the #1 seed Astrid Soreano from Trenton as Crowe definitively held her own, at one point winning five games off Astrid. Coach Chambers described, “Micah played the best tennis of her life today. She left every ounce of energy on the court, hitting the hardest groundstrokes I’ve ever witnessed from her, and left with her head held high despite the loss.”
For the third and final round of the day, Washburn and Garr played a tightly-matched top Kirksville pair to decide the championship. Last year, these two hornets came up just one tiebreak short of the district championship, so they came with a clear mission in mind. In both sets, Rylee and Isabella started out slow, dropping the first game each time. But from there on out, they turned on their top game — power first serves, wicked cross-court net play, and lots of chatter between the pair. While the match was a good, even battle, the lady hornets proved victorious and claimed the title of 2023 District Doubles Champions.
In that final round, Crowe and BeVelle, typically doubles partners during team duals, had to face off for the third place medal. The pair played long points and were very evenly matched. But eventually, senior Bryton BeVelle proved victorious, earning herself the third place medal just like 2022, while Micah Crowe left with the fourth place medal. Clark and Shira once again started off a bit slow in the third place match against Kirksville’s lower ranked doubles pair, digging a hole of 2-5 at one point. However, they battled back as they have the past few matches and eventually came within one game of tying it up before losing in the end by two games. This earned them the fourth place doubles medal for the day.
The Lady Hornets continue Team District play on Monday and Tuesday at home on the Danner Park courts to see if they can earn another team district championship. The team invites all of Chillicothe to watch and support the team and would love to see the community out in mass at 4 pm both evenings.
Scores from the day:
Washburn & Garr beat Trenton 6-0, 6-0; beat Kirksville2 6-0, 6-0; beat Kirksville1 6-2, 6-4 — 1st place
BeVelle beat Cameron2 6-2, 6-0; lost to Kirksville1 3-6, 2-6; beat Chillicothe2 8-5 — 3rd place
Crowe beat Cameron1 6-0, 6-1; lost to Trenton1 1-6, 5-7; lost to Chillicothe1 5-8 — 4th place
Clark & Shira beat Cameron2 6-1, 6-1; lost to Kirksville1 2-6, 3-6; lost to Kirksville2 6-8 — 4th place
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