Postseason team play began on Monday night for girls tennis throughout Missouri, and locally, Chillicothe (district 3 seed) was matched up against Benton (district 6 seed). The lady hornets tackled the night with all new doubles pairs in order to divide up power baseline players with partner net attackers. The choice paid off well when the lady hornets went up 3-0 after commanding all three doubles matches. Coach Chambers and Coach Pyrtle were proud to see their girls’ flexibility and team spirit work out for everyone.
In singles play, the #1 players had a very tough matchup showcasing the 2nd and 3rd place individual district finishers, but after a long battle, Benton came out on top. Chillicothe also had to forfeit the #3 singles spot due to illness. This brought the team score to 3-2. In postseason play, the first team to 5 points ends the night, and in singles, everyone has to play best two out of three sets, which requires more stamina. At that moment, the rest of the Chilli squad stepped up big. All four remaining singles courts were clearly winning by a set or more, but the first two to finish were seniors Keeley Shira and Sarah George. These two veterans cranked out decisive set wins one right after the other in record time to clinch the victory. The remaining matches featuring Keonnia Morgan and Jasmine McLean were both up a set and well on their way to victory as well if allowed to finish.
Chillicothe moves on to the district semi-finals against the #2 seed Excelsior Springs on Tuesday at 4 PM in Excelsior. Last night’s results were as follows:
#1 Doubles — Micah Crowe & Keeley Shira beat Bella Thomas & Cammie Peters 8-4
#2 Doubles — Bianca Clark & Lydia Bonderer beat Alyssa Martinez & Ali Smith 8-4
#3 Doubles — Jasmine McLean & Lexy Smith beat Jade Mabion & Riley Kretzer 8-2
#1 Singles — Crowe lost to Thomas 1-6, 1-6
#2 Singles — Morgan & Martinez went unfinished
#3 Singles — Clark forfeited to Kenna Guyer due to illness
#4 Singles — Shira beat Peters 6-1, 6-2
#5 Singles — McLean & Smith went unfinished
#6 Singles — Sarah George beat Mabion 6-0, 6-1