Crawfordsville continued its winning ways with a 3-2 win over Fountain Central on senior night.
One of the two seniors for the Athenians, Hannah McLean defeated Haley Webb 7-6(7-0), 6-4 at No. 2 singles for the Athenians. Samantha Rohr notched a 6-0 6-3 win at No. 3 singles, and the tandem of Lilly Klingbeil and Elyse Widmer defeated Tyler Bowling and Marylee Muniz 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 doubles.
“We know that every time we come out and play Fountain Central it’s going to be a battle,” Crawfordsville coach Jeff Strickland said. “They’re always well coached and always have talented players. Both teams battled hard, and I was really impressed with how well we fought. We wanted to honor both Hannah and Lauren (Hale) tonight and send them off on a high note. Both of them had very challenging matches and Hannah was able to come out on top, but Lauren never gave in at any point and battled till the very end.”
The Mustangs picked up victories at No. 1 singles as Lillie Fishero defeated Lauren Hale 6-4, 7-5 and also at No. 1 doubles with Paige Scheurich and Emily Jimenez defeating Cathleen McGrady and Ella Hudson in three sets 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Longtime Mustang Coach Dave Kight thought despite the loss his team is continuing to take steps in the right direction.
“Two cornerstones of our program our attitude and effort and both of those were on display tonight,” he said. “We made them work for almost every point tonight. I’m really proud of the way Lillie played tonight having to adjust against a great player in Lauren and she was able to hang in there and come out on top.”
As the wins have started to pile up for the Athenians, the confidence has also started to rise. Despite that Strickland knows there are still bigger goals that lie ahead.
“We’ve been really encouraged by the way we’ve played as of late,” he said. “We still have a lot of competitive tennis ahead of us these next two weeks. All of the credit goes to the girls in the way they’ve developed and continued to get better as the season has gone along.”
Kight took away many positives from this match and sees it as a positive sign that even though an opposing team may be better, his team is and will continue to give opponents everything they have.
“We’re finding out that against those teams that are better, we’re a lot closer to them now than we were a few weeks ago,” Kight said. “They’re really buying in and are always being good teammates for one another, and competing in practice, and at the end of the day that says a lot about them.”
The Athenians will be back in action on Monday as they host travel to take on Seeger. The Mustangs return to the court tonight as they host South Vermillion.
