CHS Girls Tennis Wins Thriller in Maryville

On a chilly Tuesday night, the lady hornets tennis team traveled to Maryville for an important conference dual. If the hornets could find a win, they would move into a tie for third place in the MEC, but if they lost, they would drop all the way to fifth in the conference. It proved to take every minute of the night before the lady hornets could squeak out a win! The night started slowly with CHS dropping two doubles matches, but thanks to the leadership of seniors Bianca Clark & Keeley Shira, the team earned one crucial doubles’ win during their dominant #1 play. It would go on to take every member of the team to find four more CHS wins.

Clark battled hard against Maryville’s #3 but came up just short of the win. In addition, Shira started off down 0-5 in her singles match, but fought hard to come back in several games before also dropping that match. That meant the team was down 1-4 & could not lose another match. First up, substitute sophomore Lydia Bonderer played in her first-ever varsity singles’ match & quickly & easily won at #5, moving the team score to 2-4. Senior Micah Crowe also controlled her #1 singles match & quickly beat her opponent, bumping the team score to 3-4. The last two matches on the courts that night lasted far longer than any of the rest and were back & forth for over an hour each.

Freshman Lexy Smith made her varsity singles debut substituting in at #6, and she started her match down by a game at each changeover. Her turning point came about 20 minutes into her match, when Smith accidentally ran full force into the fence while trying to make a hit. Upon impact, her sunglasses shattered & busted her eyebrow open in two places. After her allowed five minute medical timeout where coaches tried to clean her up, she had to resume the match or forfeit. She was losing 2-5 at that point. She played the remainder of that match by wiping blood from her face between each point, but that fired her up. She monopolized the rest of the match, winning 6 straight games. The team score moved to 4-4. As Smith finished, Senior Keonnia Morgan was barely up 7-6 on her #2 court with the current game at deuce. After seeing Smith pull out the win, Morgan fought hard for her deuce & won the final match for the team win! Coach Chambers & Coach Pyrtle were incredibly proud of the battle each girl put up, the mental fortitude they exemplified through a tough night, and the team-focused mindset they exemplified.

Results were as follows:

#1 Doubles — Clark & Shira beat Jaci Elston & Madison Hennegin8-4

#2 Doubles — Crowe & Sarah George lost to Chloe Little & Vivian Kain 3-8

#3 Doubles — Jasmine McLean & Summer Gatson lost to Kori Quinlin & Kora Grow 4-8

#1 Singles — Crowe beat Elston 8-2

#2 Singles — Morgan beat Quinlin 8-6

#3 Singles — Clark lost to Little 7-9

#4 Singles — Shira lost to Lindsey Deering 3-8

#5 Singles — Bonderer beat Kain 8-2

#6 Singles — Smith beat Hennegin 8-5