EDWARDSVILLE • The trip from Columbia, Mo., to the Metro East once again proved to be worthwhile for the Rock Bridge girls tennis team.
After beating Belleville West 6-3 in the semifinals, the Bruins defeated host Edwardsville 7-2 Saturday afternoon to win the Southern Illinois Duals for the third year in a row. After winning four matches over two days in the 16-team event, the Bruins are 17-0 overall.
"Belleville West gave us all we could handle, and Edwardsville has a very strong team," said Rock Bridge coach Ben Loeb, whose team defeated Edwardsville 7-2 in a dual meet this season at Columbia. "Even though we had a 3-1 lead after doubles, they were making a run at us on many courts and the outcome was still in doubt."
"Congratulations to Rock Bridge; they've got an excellent team." said Edwardsville (17-6) coach Dave Lipe, who co-hosts the tournament with Belleville East coach Rebecca Schrader. "I'm proud of our girls. Our Orange team (Edwardsville's second entry in the tournament) beat two top-eight seeds.
"Our Black team had a very good weekend and beat (Springfield) Sacred Heart-Griffin (8-1 in the semifinals). If you look at the scores against Rock Bridge, every single match was competitive, but they were just a little bit tougher than us,"
Rock Bridge took three of the four doubles matches, with Maddy Kayser and Kay Fischer defeating Edwardsville's Paige Sturley and Casey Bonham 7-5, 7-5 in the No. 1 flight. Other winners for the Bruins were Sophi Farid and Phoebe Boeschen at No. 2 (6-1, 6-2 over Tess Severin and Jessica Burns) and Savannah Everett and Emily Shaw at No. 4 (6-3, 7-6 with a 7-5 tiebreaker over Sara Janulavich and Kristin Schlueter).
Edwardsville's doubles win came at No. 3, where Paige Bequette and Morgan McGinnis beat Allison Baker and Emily Perry 6-1, 7-6 with a 7-3 tiebreaker.
In singles, Rock Bridge won four of five matches, with Farid defeating McGinnis 6-2, 6-1 at No. 1 and Kayser beating Severin 7-5, 6-0 at No. 2. Everett won 6-4, 6-3 over Sturley at the fourth flight, and Boeschen defeated Burns 6-4, 7-5. at No. 4.
The lone singles winner for Edwardsville was Bequette, who defeated Fischer 7-5, 6-3 at No. 3.
"Paige was our only player to win two matches against Rock Bridge," Lipe said. "She's tough, and I have a lot of respect for her. I have a lot of respect for the girls that lost, too, because they fought their hearts out."
In the semifinals, Belleville West dropped a pair of third-set tiebreakers against Rock Bridge, as Farid defeated Kelcie Comley 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 at No. 1 singles, and Rayser defeated Blair Hollenback 1-6, 6-4, 10-6 at No. 2 singles. Winners for West were Comley and Hollenback at No. 1 doubles, Anna Mernick at No. 3 singles and Kayleigh Thurwalker at No. 4 singles.
"We lost 6-3, but we very easily could have won 5-4," West coach Bob Keefe said. "I told the girls Rock Bridge can beat you 9-0 in a heartbeat. Winning wasn't as important as being competitive."
West came back to beat Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin 7-0 for third place. Comley, Hollenbeck, Mernick and Thurwalker all won their singles matches in straight sets, as did Laura Knysak at No. 5. Due to injuries, only one doubles match was played, as Anna Bullard and Danielle Hawthorne won in straight sets at No. 1 along with a forfeit victory at No. 2.
"It took almost four hours to play Rock Bridge and we finished with a win, so we had a really good tournament this weekend," Keefe said. "Our doubles teams played well and our singles players were outstanding."
