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The Chillicothe girls' tennis team mounted a stunning comeback to win
their fourth straight Team District Championship, which included three
separate match tie-breaks. Chillicothe traveled to Kirksville as the
visiting #2 seed to the Tigers' #1 home seed.
Doubles play started the night in tight, tough
competition. Washburn and Garr quickly won their #2 Doubles match-up 8-3.
Carpenter and BeVelle lost their #1 Doubles match 4-8. After starting the
#3 Doubles match down 2-4 initially, Kieffer and Crowe mounted a solid
comeback to eventually win their head-to-head 8-6.
As the team moved on to Singles play, junior Izzy Garr
solidly won her best two-out-of-three-sets match 6-2, 6-1. Then, senior
Madison Kieffer dropped her Singles match 0-6, 0-6. Next, junior Rylee
Washburn confidently won 6-3, 6-3. On the fourth court, sophomore Micah
Crowe battled back after dropping her first set 4-6 to then win the second
set 6-1, but she lost in a nail-biting third set tie-break 11-13. This
brought team play to a 4-3 score with two tight matches left playing.
Senior Cami Carpenter and junior Bryton BeVelle both
lost their first sets, 4-6, 3-6 respectively. Then, BeVelle slowly battled
back to win her second set in a tie break, which sent her match into a
third set tie break. BeVelle was unable to finish that tie break before
Carpenter finished the team win for her. While that tight match was
happening, Carpenter started slow in her second set, again
down 3-4. Then, she stunningly won three straight games by breaking
Kirksville's #1 powerhouse serve twice to win the second set. In the third
set tie break, Carpenter again started out in a hole, down 1-6. She then
won 9 of the next 10 points in a row, shocking the entire crowd with a
final 10-8 tiebreaking win.
The Lady Hornets play in Individual Sectionals Friday
at Excelsior Springs and then early next week host the Team Sectionals at
their home courts in Danner Park. |
