Area Tennis

Mustangs keep rolling with victory over Athenians

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VEEDERSBURG -— Fountain Central and Crawfordsville girls tennis always provide an entertaining match up when the two teams square off. That would again be the case on Wednesday as the Athenians made the short trip over to Veedersburg. When all was said and done it would be the Mustangs who would avenge last season’s loss to CHS by coming away with a narrow 3-2 win.

All three victories for the Mustangs came at the singles spots as Lillie Fishero defeated Samantha Rohr 6-1, 6-0 at one singles. At two singles Haley Webb was victorious over Reese Minnette 6-1, 6-1. Angela Gonzalez wrapped up the wins for FC by defeating Harmony Taylor at three singles 6-3, 6-3.

“Crawfordsville is a really solid team from top to bottom,” Mustangs coach David Kight said. “Playing a team like this will definitely help our girls prepare for the tournament. I feel good about coming away with a 3-2 win. Our one doubles were right there and hopefully our two doubles will take some things away from tonight to get better and all three of our singles girls feel really good about themselves.”

Cathleen McGrady and Lilly Klingbeil battled and eventually took home a super tie-breaker win over Emily Jimenez and Alydia Mellady 7-6(4), 5-7, 10-4 at one doubles for the Athenians. Elyse Widmer and Mia Wagner also brought home a 6-2, 6-4 win over Marylee Muniz and Hannah Prickett at two doubles for CHS.

“I’m glad we were able to nail down that win at one doubles with Cathleen and Lilly,” Crawfordsville coach Cara Amundson said. “Elyse and Mia are just solid and consistent for us night in and night out and it was good to see them continue that. I’m proud of them for keeping their heads down and competing all night. We did fall a little short, but hopefully we’ll learn from this and bounce back.”

Fishero set the tone of the night for the Mustangs. The senior put together a dominating win against Rohr and was able to remain undefeated on the season at the one singles spot. Coach Kight talked about his senior played arguably her best all-around match of the year as she helped the Mustangs in the win.
“Even she admitted that that was probably the best match she has played all season from start to finish,” he said. “I felt like she was able to take away everything that Samantha wanted to do. Lillie played about as a perfect of a match that she could’ve played regarding who she was going up against. She’s just a smart tennis player and that’s one of her biggest strengths as she understands the game very well. Any weakness that her opponent has in her game, she is able to exploit it and she just played phenomenal for us tonight.”

Kight took more time after the match to give credit to both McGrady and Klingbeil as well as Widmer and Wagner as the competition from the Athenians was some of the best that the Mustangs had seen all season.

“That’s probably the best two doubles team that we’ve faced all year,” Kight said of Widmer and Wagner. “I was pleased with how we played in the second set and kept competing. One doubles tonight was a high level doubles matchup for both teams. We were up in the first tie-break and gave up a seven point run in the super tie-break after getting the first point. They (McGrady and Klingbeil) had a better presence at the net and that was the difference. I’ll take matches like that any day. Those are matches that get us better and give us a chance to see where we’re at against bigger schools. If you always play teams you’re better than, you’ll never know what your weaknesses are.”

FC improves to 11-1 on the season and will have some time off before next week’s match against South Putnam on Tuesday. Crawfordsville is scheduled to travel to Harrison on Thursday.


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