Highland girls tennis gets stopped on opening day of IHSA Class 1A Centralia Sectional
Bringing four entries to the IHSA Class 1A Centralia Sectional tournament at Centralia High School, the Highland High School Lady Bulldogs tennis team had big hopes of getting a pair of entries through in the semifinals and finals on Oct. 17.
Despite a pair of hard-fought doubles matches that went to three-set tiebreakers, Highland fell short and was unable to advance anyone beyond the quarterfinal round Oct. 16.
“We didn’t get anybody through till tomorrow (Oct. 17), Highland coach Matt Pellock said. “We had two good opportunities and lost them in three sets in both of them.”
One of those good chances for Highland came with Krista Rittenhouse and Sidney Basler playing at No.1 doubles in a second-round match. Basler and Rittenhouse left everything they had on the court but dropped a three-set decision to Triad’s doubles pairing of Kare Speer and Sami Hartoin 1-6, 6-2, 3-6.
“It was definitely a challenging (match),“ Pellock said. “Triad we had seen and a lot of that is matchups where they hit a lot of drop shots and lobs and they just ended up staying out of trouble. Krista played really well at the net and she was a big reason we were able to get to the third set.”
In singles, Highland senior Hannah Geest had her chance at advancing to the semifinals stopped when she lost to Flora’s Emma Walden in the quarterfinal round 6-0, 3-6, 4-6.
“She was playing well and I think kind of what happened was the other girl was hitting the ball short and a little bit of swirling wind definitely was keeping her off balance there in the second set and a little bit of some exhaustion probably kept her from competing how she wanted to,” Pellock said.
Geest dispatched Flora’s Dana Sodsaikitch in the second round of the tournament to advance to the quarterfinals.
Highland’s other doubles entry of Katie Augustin and Brianna Helm, playing in the No. 2 doubles slot, drew a tough first round doubles match against the Flora duo of Ava Cammon and Kathryn Jennings and lost 4-6, 3-6.
“They had a tough first round as they had to Flora’s No. 1 doubles team and they were competitive, they just weren’t able to win it,” Pellock said.
Highland’s other singles entry, Jenna Fenton, played out of the No. 2 single spot and prevailed in her first round match over Faith Bundy-Climer of Vandalia. In the second round, things did not go as well for Fenton, as she was eliminated in her second-round match, falling to talented Lanie Carder of Flora.
Pellock weighs in on end of campaign
Pellock said it was a disappointing way to have the season end but he knew the sectional would be a challenge for the Lady Bulldogs after the seedings and early pairings were released.
“We had two teams that were seeded to get through but once the draws came out without seeing all these teams (play) you can have good seeds but you just don’t know who the best teams are. But we knew Triad was good and any time you run into Triad, you’re going to get a big battle,” Pellock said.