Highland High School girls tennis has good week with back-to-back road wins

A week after struggling in a tough road match at O’Fallon and battling through the Amy Bradshaw Tournament at Edwardsville, the Highland Lady Bulldogs tennis team

Highland Lady Bulldogs tennis team got a much-needed boost with consecutive road wins early last week.

“This has been a good week so far,” Highland coach Matt Pellock said. “It’s been kind of nice to for some of the players to get their first wins of the season after we played some tough teams starting out, so this has been a nice week so far.”

On Sept. 8, the Lady Bulldogs ventured to Greenville and handed the host Comets a 9-0 shutout loss.

In the singles flights, No. 1 standout Hannah Geest won her match 6-2, 6-4. Sidney Basler was strong at No. 2 singles as she won 6-1, 6-1 while Brianna Helm battled her way to a 6-4, 7-6. victory at No. 3 singles. Krista Rittenhouse at No. 4 singles fell behind 4-0 in the first game before rallying to come back and win her match 6-4, 6-0.

“That was a good comeback win for Krista,” Pellock said.

Katie Augustin claimed her No. 5 singles match 6-2, 6-0, and Addison Crask closed out the singles rotation with a 6-3, 6-0 win atNo. 6 singles.

“The singles went well (for us),” Pellock said.

In the doubles flights, Highland rolled, as Rittenhouse and Geest won 8-0 at No. 1 doubles, Basler and Augustin rolled to an 8-3 win at No. 2 doubles, and Crask teamed with Bradey McKinley at No. 3 singles and won their match 8-5.

Highland then traveled to Alton on Sept. 10 and fared well again. Like against Greenville, the Lady Bulldogs again used strong net play to stop the Redbirds as HHS posted a 9-0 shutout road victory.

Geest battled through a leg injury and super tiebreaker to win 6-3, 1-6, 10-5 at No. 1 singles. Basler won at No. 2 singles 6-1, 6-2. Helm at No. 3 singles won 6-2, 6-3. At No. 4 singles, Rittenhouse claimed a 6-1, 6-3 match win. Augustin won a No. 5 singles, 6-0, 6-2 and Crask capped off the singles flight with a 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 6 singles.

The Lady Bulldogs dominated in doubles as well. Geest and Rittenhouse won at No. 1 doubles 8-3. Basler and Helm claimed their match at No. 2 doubles with and an 8-1 victory, and Augustin and Crash won the No.. 3 doubles match 8-2.

“There were definitely lots more opportunities at the net today and yesterday at Greenville than we saw the previous weeks,” Pellock said. “Being a little bit more experienced than Greenville and the Alton team overall helped them get some more looks for volleys and better place their shots a little bit easier.”

Highland takes on Edwardsville

Highland finished off the week Friday with a home match against highly-rated Edwardsville.

Visiting Edwardsville mixed in some JV players with their varsity for the match. The Lady Bulldogs turned in some solid efforts in singles and doubles but Edwardsville ultimately prevailed 9-0.

“A couple of the (match) scores were close, but we didn’t win any of the varsity (matches),” Pellock said. “The matches were more competitive this afternoon and I think having a couple of weeks of matches behind them helped to prepare them for what to encounter, so that was helpful.”

Geest lost at No. 1 single 0-6, 0-6, and Basler fell at No. 2 singles 2-6, 0-6. Helm dropped her No. 3 singes match 2-6, 1-6. Rittenhouse lost at No. 4 singles, 5-7, 0-6. Augustin lost at No. 5 singles 5-7, 2-6 and Crask dropped her No. 6 singles match 4-6, 0-6.

In doubles, Edwardsville won the first, second, third doubles matches 8-2, 8-1, and 8-5.

JV squad produces bright spots

In spite of the tough time for the Lady Bulldogs varsity, there were a couple of bright spots in the JV match, as the top two doubles teams did well. Bradie McKinley and Jenna Fenton won 9-8 at No. 1 doubles and Addison Rode and Tiffany Hediger won 8-2 in the No. 2 doubles flight.

“They played good (in their matches),” Pellock said. “Bradie and Jenna kind of came back in their match. They were down I think 4-7 and they came back and won.”