NEW MARKET — Crawfordsville girls tennis has been the team to beat in the county the last few seasons and on Tuesday the first county matchup of the spring got underway when the Athenians made the short trip to Southmont. Looking to increase their lead in the county chase standings, CHS would be able to do just that as they defeated their county rivals 4-1.
Southmont competed well at most spots especially in the first set. Their lone win came at three singles as senior Kela Johnson defeated Emily Weliever in a three-set tie break 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4). At one singles Sam Rohr defeated Hanna Long 7-5, 6-1 and Reagan Cox took care of Marley Jones 6-4, 6-2 at two singles. At one doubles Alayna Hall and Isla Seward also went three sets against the Mounties Courtlyn Carpenter and Haylee Hall and were able to come away with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win. Rounding out the wins for CHS was the duo of Emma Buser and Amy Weliever at two doubles. They defeated Evelyn Zachary and Jozee Jones 7-6 (4-2), 6-3.
“We do have some new girls in some new spots this year, but what has really helped us early on is having all three singles players back,” Crawfordsville coach Kara Amundson said. “Our doubles teams have stepped up to the challenge and are filling in those holes very nicely so far. It’s still early and we have some more polishing to do with those new girls but I know we’ll get there.”
Hall and Seward are both new to the one doubles for the Athenians as they are replacing the senior duo from last year of Elyse Widmer and Mia Wagner. Buser also steps in to fill one of the holes at two doubles left by Ali Brown.
Cville, like every spring team so far, has had to battle the elements and are trying to make the most of every opportunity they get to play.
“This is a group of girls that’s really coach-able and comes to work and that’s what I love most about them,” Amundson said. “We always focus with taking it just one day at a time and try and get better however we can.”
Southmont coach Rob Reimondo while being disappointed with the loss, was still finding positives to talk about after their second match of the season.
“These matches were a lot tighter than what the overall score is going to say,” Reimondo said. “It’s really tough to have such an important county and conference match right the beginning of your season. We typically struggle early in the season with unforced errors and that’s because we’re still getting into tennis mode. We have a lot of girls who are multi-sport athletes and it takes us some time to get into rhythm. I’ll give a ton of credit to Kela because she’s a gamer and she seems to enjoy three set matches. She was our MVP last year and she played like it today. I was also pleased with our one doubled group. Those girls haven’t had a ton of experience together and they played a tight three set match. There’s a lot to look forward to there as well.”
Crawfordsville improves to 2-0 (1-0 SAC) on the season while the Mounties fall to 1-1 (0-1 SAC). CHS will look to clinch its fourth straight county title on Thursday when they travel to the other end of the county for a match against North Montgomery. Southmont is back at home Thursday against Attica.
