This weekend, Chillicothe High School’s Lexy Smith (junior) and Lydia Bonderer (senior) traveled to Springfield’s Cooper Tennis Complex under gorgeous weather to play in the the MSHSAA State Individual Tennis Tournament as a doubles entry. After medaling in 8th place last year, the pair had lofty goals this year, but the state picture looked starkly different this year. Since MSHSAA recalculated the formula used for private school entries, a dozen of those schools reentered Class 1 brackets along with Chillicothe. Chillicothe started with a decent first draw, seeing Harrisonville in the round of 16, which was one of only five public schools who made the Class 1 state tournament this year with 11 private school entries claiming the rest. The Lady Hornets pair started that first match out a bit cold and stiff in their groundstrokes, just working out the nerves, but then they really turned on their play, winning the match 7-5, 6-4.
Next up, Smith and Bonderer faced the top pair from Pembroke Hill of Kansas City. The Hornets played the best match of their career with stellar hitting, serving, and volleying the entire match, but it wasn’t enough to conquer that strong Pembroke pair. CHS eventually fell 4-6, 3-6, but with their heads held high and the Pembroke pair and coach offering up tremendous compliments on the physical and mental strength of Chillicothe. Then, the teams went home for the night to wait for further rounds.
On Saturday morning bright and early at 8 am, Chillicothe faced an unknown pair from New Heights Christian Academy out of Joplin. The Lady Hornets dominated the first set with powerful serving and net play. They also, started off the second set with a win. However, New Heights started poaching every point at the net from there on out, and Chillicothe could not find an answer to combat their volley winners. New Heights took the second set, sending the do-or-die bubble match to a third set championship tiebreak. Their momentum from that second set led them to build a quick lead in the tiebreak also, getting up 6-1 over Chillicothe. Then, CHS battled back for several points, bringing it to 5-7 and then 6-8, but the gap proved just too big. New Heights clinched the last few points and took the match, ending Smith and Bonderer’s run for a final medal after a magnificent high school tennis career as a pair.
Pembroke went on to finish 2nd in state with New Heights finishing 5th place, both teams going 4-1 in the tournament. Smith and Bonderer ended their season 23-6 and repeat conference and district doubles champions. Bonderer will leave for college, but Smith will return for one more girls tennis season in 2027.
