Highland girls tennis team has success this fall despite COVID-19 altered season
A 2020 postseason schedule and regular season start impacted by COVID-19 restrictions did not stop the Highland girls tennis team from having a successful 2020 campaign.
The Lady Bulldogs overcame a slow start in losing to large schools such as Belleville West and Althoff in the first few weeks of the season and rallied to finish with a respectable 12-9 record.
“I felt like the girls had a pretty good season,” Highland coach Matt Pellock said.
Overall, the singles flight helped the Lady Bulldogs be competitive and gave them a chance to win each match. The singles were led by seniors Hannah Geest at No. 1 singles, Sidney Basler at No. 2 singles, Brianna Helm at No. 3 singles, and Jenna Fenton at No. 4 singles.
That quartet set the tone for the Lady Bulldogs during the season.
“We kind of knew that coming into the season and they were all returning varsity players for us,” Pellock said. “They’ve kind of known that for the last couple years that it was going to be ‘our turn’ at the top of the lineup for the first time as seniors and they did well. They had a good season and filled the spots very well.”
Junior Krista Rittenhouse had a solid season at No. 5 singles and Katie Augustin, another junior, was steady playing in the No. 6 singles slot.
When it came to doubles flights, Highland had to be a little more creative with pairings due to the COVID-19 outbreak that hit the school in early September, but Pellock credited the depth from his junior class for helping keep the team steady.
“Fortunately, (the COVID-19 outbreak) didn’t affect us too much,” Pellock said.
Breakdown of doubles play, key match this fall
In the doubles play, Basler teamed with Hannah Geest at No. 1 doubles. Helm and Rittenhouse combined at No. 2 doubles, and Fenton and Augustin worked together at No. 3 doubles.
Those pairings were just a few Pellock used during the season as he shifted the doubles flights to different opponents and matchups as situations dictated adjustments.
Looking back, a third-place finish the weekend of Sept. 19 in the Alton Invite Tournament seemed to jump-start the Lady Bulldogs in dual match play. Highland blanked Alton 6-0 on Sept. 19 to claim third place.
“That’s also when we started kind of playing more of our conference (matches) and more of our size schools,” Pellock said. “That Alton tournament was the same week as when we started conference matches, so it kind of gave a little sense of what the year was going to be like and gave us a good look at all of the teams in our region.”
MVC tournament, postseason
The Lady Bulldogs finished the regular season finishing second to Civic Memorial in the MVC Doubles Tournament and then finished second to Triad in the MVC Singles Tournament on Oct. 9 and 10, respectively.
That led HHS into the always tough Class 1A Centralia Sectional on Oct. 17. Highland took four entries to Centralia that day but things did not work out well for the Lady Bulldogs.
Due in large part to a very strong field that included Triad, Flora, Olney, and Centralia, the Lady Bulldogs were unable to produce any state qualifiers.
“That was a tough sectional,” Pellock said. “The main thing was the quality of the teams. Centralia, Olney, Flora, Triad all had quality teams and that was really the No. 1 thing.”
HHS will miss seniors, but junior class talented
Geest, Basler, Helm, and Fenton will be lost to graduation but Pellock has a talented junior class that includes the likes of Rittenhouse, Augustin, and Lauren Herman along with sophomore Addison Crask that should make the Lady Bulldogs a strong group in 2021.
“We have a really good junior group this year with a lot of girls who didn’t play a whole lot of varsity tennis for us because of our seniors filling those top spots. But they played a lot of tennis,” Pellock said. “I feel good going into next season with that group.”