| Story by Coach
Chambers
Lady Hornets Lose Nail Biter to
Kirksville Tennis Squad
On Monday
night, the CHS girls' tennis team traveled to play against the
Kirksville lady tigers on the Truman State University courts under
beautiful weather conditions. The night started slow for
Chillicothe, who dropped the #1 & #3 doubles matches quickly.
However, the #2 doubles pair of seniors Gatson & Mathews battled
incredibly hard for a long match to eventually pull out a very
close win. That helped the team stay in the hunt for a varsity
team win.
When the team
shifted over to singles play, Leppin and Smith both battled hard
on their courts but eventually fell to power serving and tough
angled ground shots from their competitors. With the team score at
1-4 already, the night look practically guaranteed for Kirksville,
but then, slowly over the next hour, the lady hornets battled back
on their remaining courts. Once again, seniors Gatson and Mathews
shined in their follow-up matches, winning handedly and suddenly
taking the team score to 3-4. With two matches left on the court,
the coaches made the remaining players aware that the team win was
still within grasp. This spurred Bonderer to mount an impressive
come-from-behind win at the #2 singles slot after originally being
down a handful of games at one point. She fought hard to force the
match to a tie break, which she then dominated, never falling
behind from then on. Unfortunately, on the court beside her, the
#6 left-handed hitter from Kirksville proved to difficult for
Moore to beat, so the team final ended up 4-5 overall. However,
Coach Chambers was thrilled to see her team never give up and
fight for every last match, no matter the odds.
Results were as follows:
#1 Doubles -- Lexy Smith & Lydia
Bonderer lost to Kaedyn Hill & Alyson Snyder 2-8
#2 Doubles -- Summer Gatson & Rian
Mathews won over Varsha Manikandan & Alexis Gardner 9-7
#3 Doubles -- Trixie Leppin & Anya
Moore lost to Braelyn Johns & Nora Seedorf 0-8
#1 Singles -- Smith lost to Hill 5-8
#2 Singles -- Bonderer won over 8-8
(tiebreak 7-4)
#3 Singles -- Gatson won over Snyder
8-4
#4 Singles -- Mathews won over Johns
8-2
#5 Singles -- Leppin lost to Seedorf
3-8
#6 Singles -- Moore lost to Cardner
1-8
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