The MSHSAA Class 2 doubles tournament didn't exactly end the way Francis Howell tennis players and sisters Allison and Erin Barker wanted.
While the duo went out with back-to-back losses at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, it isn't really so bad because the pair did manage to capture fourth place in Class 2.
"I got to play with my sister and that's what made this most fun for me," Allison, who is a senior, said. "She's a blast. She made the experience fun."
During preliminary rounds Friday, the Barker sisters defeated Jessica Greenberg and Emily McCarter of Parkway North 6-1, 6-3 to open the tournament and the team of Grace Wells and Hannah Bredar 7-6 (7-1 tiebreaker), 6-2 to advance to the semifinal round.
While the great opening day guaranteed the duo a state medal, neither of them likely expected to go winless in two matches during the final day of the tournament.
"It was hard," Allison said. "We put our best into it and there's nothing we can do about it now. Fourth place is still really good out of 16 teams and we'd never been to state before. We weren't really expecting anything, so fourth place sounds really good to us."
Someone else who found the fourth place finish rewarding was Howell tennis coach Lee Hays.
While he knew the pair had such good tennis in them, he said it was even more rewarding to see them go out and execute.
"I am really happy for them," Hays said. "Our goal for this year was to get there. It is really tough when you get up there with all of the competition. The girls did really well. They got beat in the semifinals of a tournament that's full of a lot of really great talent."
The Barkers' first loss at state came to a talented duo, indeed.
St. Joseph's Taylor Revling and Grace Hyde earned the 6-0, 7-5 win during the semifinal round. Revling and Hyde would go on to win the Class 2 doubles championship later that day.
"It was a bummer that we didn't get to the (second set) tiebreak," Erin, a sophomore, said. "I am glad we did make them work for it, (during) the second set, anyway."
Things started out well for the Barkers in the third place match, as they rolled to a 6-1 first-set win over Savannah Everett and Allison Baker of Rock Bridge before dropping the final two sets 4-6 and 3-6.
"We just tried our best in that match," Erin said. "We weren't too down that we lost (the semifinal) to St. Joe's."
The pair finished the season with a 31-3 mark in doubles matches.
Hays said he felt the pair was playing its best tennis when it was most important, during the final stretch of the season, which included Saturday, even though they were 0-2.
"They were rolling into that third place match," Hays said. "I just think they kind of let down in the third set. Outside of that, they played well all weekend."
The Barkers agreed they would not have been where they were if not for the hard work and great teaching of Hays.
"Our coach did an awesome job and I think he should be noted for how much time he put into this," Allison said. "Out of all the high school coaches, we see him as being one of the best. We're both very thankful that he was our coach."
