LINDEN — Mother Nature hasn’t been kind to the Crawfordsville girls tennis team so far this season, but that hasn’t stopped the Athenians from continuing to excel on the court. Coming off of 4-1 win over county rival Southmont on Tuesday in their season opener, CHS made the trip just North to take on their other county rival in the North Montgomery Chargers. Despite gusty winds making play difficult for both teams, the Athenians came away with a 5-0 sweep of the Chargers to claim the county title.
While it’s only still early in the season, CHS can check off one of their season goals of defending the county tennis crown.
“Their hard is really starting to pay off,” first-year Athenian coach Cara Amundson said. “I reminded the girls before the match that while the conditions weren’t great, that our opponent was dealing with the same thing and to play the ball and not get frustrated.”
At No. 1 singles, Samantha Rohr defeated Carlie DeSmet 6-4, 6-2. Reese Minette was victorious over Sydney Neideffer 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles and Harmony Taylor brought home a 6-1, 6-1 win over Paige Hudson at the No. 3 singles spot. The tandem of Cathleen McGrady and Lilly Klingbeil at No. 1 doubles defeated Allison Guard and Sydnee Turner 6-4, 6-2 and rounding out the sweep for CHS was the No. 2 doubles team of Elyse Widmer and Mia Wagner with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Courtney Engel and Shayna Ratcliff.
“They’ve all done a terrific job of staying behind each other and supporting one another as a team,” Amundson said of her team. “These first two matches have just been a great collective effort. It speaks to the team we have in the effort that all of the girls have put in in these first two matches.”
For the Chargers the 5-0 defeat doesn’t tell the entire story of the match as first year coach Lori Guard describes.
“I definitely saw improvements from our match on Tuesday,” she said. “Carlie stayed competitive with their No. 1 all game long and had a lot of deuce points. Sidney at two singles is developing her game nicely and is showing great potential. Paige at three singles is still learning how to adjust to the singles style as she played doubles last year. That’s a new challenge that she’s taking on for us. Sydnee and Allison are gaining experience together at doubles and it takes time to develop a chemistry. With Courtney and Shayna they were up 5-4 in the first but just couldn’t close it out. Their movement was great and they were working well as a team.”
The Athenians will carry their 2-0 record into this weekend where they will compete in the Terre Haute South Invitational while the Chargers will be back in action on Monday as they travel to Lafayette Jeff.
