The Lafayette and Parkway Central tennis teams may have had the match of the 2011 high school season and it happened in the state semifinals at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield on Thursday.
The teams split their six singles matches and split the top two doubles matches. As is often the case in high school tennis, the match would be determined at No. 3 doubles.
That match went the distance before Ryan Wendt and Ned Campbell finally won a third set tie-breaker over Central's Jacob Kanter and Ryan Wille to give the Lancers a thrilling 5-4 victory.
"The guys dug deep and found a way to win," Lafayette coach Mark McAllister said. "That is what state is all about."
Wendt and Campbell had a 3-0 third set lead only to fall behind 5-4. It eventually went to the tie-breaker which, like the entire match, had changing momentum. Lafayette won it 8-6.
"The fun part of team tennis is that every position is the same," McAllister said. "You get the same number of points winning at No. 3 doubles that you do at No. 1 singles."
Lafayette had singles wins at the top three positions from Mick Lyons, Jake Goodman and Wendt. But Parkway Central swept the bottom three spots as Wille, Ninaad Balachandran and Jack Bridge were victorious. Lyons and Goodman won at No. 1 doubles for the Lancers while Ashwath Sampath and Balachandran won at No. 2 doubles for Parkway Central.
Lafayette fell in the championship match to Rock Bridge, 5-2. It was the third Class 2 championship in the last four years for the Bruins. Lafayette got wins from Lyons and Goodman at No. 1 and 2 respectively, but Rock Bridge, which lost just five total games in the bottom four singles matches, became the first public school in 42 years to repeat as state champions. McCluer won state titles in 1968 and 1969.
Rockhurst defeated Parkway Central 5-1 in the Class 2 third-place match.
Westminster Christian also fell a match short of bringing a state championship back home to St. Louis. The Wildcats fell to Pembroke Hill 5-1 in the Class 1 championship match. Bailey Merkle had the only Wildcat win at No. 3 singles.
"There was no shame in that loss," Westminster Christian coach Nathan Talley said. "They were just the better team. I guess it is OK if your only loss of the season comes in the championship match."
Westminster improved to 16-0 when it defeated Clayton 5-1 in the semifinals on Thursday morning. Clayton freshman Mac Rechan won at No. 1 singles but Stephen Lillenberg, Bailey Merkle, Cameron Smith, Chris Griesedieck and Zach Schopp all won for Westminster. Lillenberg won the clinching match as he defeated Jake Lee 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) at No. 2 singles. Lillenberg was behind 5-2 in the tie-breaker before scoring the final five points.
"The win against Clayton was a great one," Talley said. "We have an excellent team from top to bottom and we showcased that in the win against a tough, tough Clayton team. I thought that was going to be a very close match. We did not get that first team championship today but we are still going to try and get that first boys championship this weekend in doubles."
Smith and Merkle and Tim Miller and Lillenberg will be competing in the individual portion of the tournament which begins Friday at 9 a.m. for Class 1 players and at 10:15 for Class 2 players.
Clayton came back to capture third place, defeating Warrensburg 5-0.
