A county rivalry took center stage Thursday at Crawfordsville. The Athenians and their county rival North Montgomery Chargers squared off for the sectional in girls tennis after both teams were winners during Wednesday’s semi-finals. While the match was much more competitive than earlier in the season when CHS won 5-0, Cville still managed to take down their county rivals 4-1 to capture their third consecutive girls tennis sectional title.
North Montgomery got their win from sophomore Abigail Allen at three singles. She defeated Crawfordsville’s Emily Weliver in a super tie-breaker 4-6, 6-3, 10-5. Crawfordsville took all four other spots as Sam Rohr defeated North Montgomery’s Paige Hudson 6-0, 6-0 at one singles. Reagan Cox earned a 6-1, 6-1 win over Sydney Neideffer at two singles. At one doubles the duo of Mia Wagner and Elyse Widmer notched a 6-0, 6-0 win over Shayna Ratcliff and Reagan Little. Rounding out the wins for the Athenians were the two doubles team of Ali Brown and Amy Weliever with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Avery Gayler and Sarika Gabhawala.
“You have to give a lot of credit to the way North Montgomery played tonight,” Crawfordsville coach Kara Amundson said. “They’ve improved tremendously since the first time we played them. This title wasn’t handed to us by any means. In the end I’m just super proud of our girls for pushing through and being able to win another championship.”
The sectional title gives the Athenians a trifecta of championships this season. They first took home the Montgomery County title, then claimed the out-right Sagamore Conference championship, and now the cherry on top is their third straight sectional trophy.
“These girls have developed a confidence about themselves that they can go out and compete with anyone,” Amundson said. “They’ve begun a culture of winning here and that begins with a lot of hard work and time in the off-season to get to this point and it shows.”
Even in the loss which saw the Chargers season come to an end, second-year coach Lori Guard was all smiles knowing that her team played some of its best tennis of the season.
“We played great and showed a ton of growth from the last time we played Crawfordsville,” she said. “We were competitive and that’s all I can ask for out of these girls. I’m super proud of everyone for raising their game in our final match tonight.”
Another added bonus for the Chargers is that they will bring back their entire varsity roster from this past season.
“It huge that we were able to hit our stride at the end of the season,” Guard said. “Lot’s of these girls have told me they’re committed to playing this summer and getting better. A special shout out I have to give Abigail for her win. She’s a player that no matter what the score is will stay mentally tough and stay in the match and do whatever is needed. You add in the fact that she’s super coach-able. She has a super bright future for sure.”
With the sectional championship win, Crawfordsville improves their overall record to 15-7 on the season. They advance to next week’s Regional which will be right back at Crawfordsville on Tuesday. They will await the winner of the Fountain Central sectional. It will either be Benton Central or Fountain Central as those two teams will play in their sectional championship match on Friday.
“Like we have all season, we just have to take it one match at a time,” Amundson said of the Regional. “We’re going to celebrate this one before we get back to work next week.”
