DOVER — Crawfordsville tennis has had their fair share of success against Sagamore Conference opponents this season. However on Wednesday night against Western Boone the Athenians fell 4-1.
Lilly Klingbeil and Elyse Widmer picked up the lone win for Crawfordsville at two doubles with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Kaley and Maddie Hawkins. Despite the loss, Crawfordsville coach Jeff Strickland was proud how his girls battled till the very last point.
“WeBo is a really good team and we knew we’d have our hands full coming in and that we’d have to play our absolute best to win,” he said. “We just didn’t have enough to take us over the top tonight. Our girls battled and fought till the very end so I’m proud of them for doing that.”
Lauren Hale was defeated by Lindsey Coffmen at one singles 2-6, 1-6, Hannah McLean fell in three sets 6-0, 2-6, 2-6 to Katelyn Jahn at two singles, and Samantha Rohr took a 1-6, 0-6 loss at three singles to Marli Ransom. At one doubles, Cathleen McGrady and Ella Hudson battled back to force a third set but ultimately fell 1-6, 6-4, 4-6.
With the loss the Athenians won’t be able to clinch the outright conference title, but still could clinch a share of the conference title with a win over Lebanon on Saturday.
“A type of match like tonight, where every single point is tought is what we want heading into the final stretch of the season with sectionals right around the corner,” Strickland said. “This is why you play sports is to compete and compete hard and we got to see a lot of that tonight. Lebanon will be a tall order, but we go into every match believing that we have an opportunity to win and Saturday is going to be no different.”
