By Fred Kroner
The two-year-old St. Joseph-Ogden girls’ tennis program had wins from all four sectional entries and two of the entries fell just one victory short of advancing to state.
Losing in the quarterfinals on Friday (Oct. 15) for the Spartans were junior Abbey Dow in singles and the senior doubles duo of Kelsey Martlage and Hope Rajlich.
All quarterfinal winners were guaranteed of advancing to state.
Dow opened the tournament in Danville with a 6-2, 6-2 triumph over Mahomet-Seymour’s Gianna Hill before falling to the eventual sectional runner-up from Danville, Lexi Ellis, 6-0, 6-0.
Martlage and Rajlich captured a triumph over M-S’ Megan Barnhart and Jadyn Hannah, 6-4, 6-4, before being eliminated by the eventual sectional runner-up entry from Danville, CiCi Brown and Reese Rundle, 6-1, 6-1.
The Spartans’ other singles entry also went 1-1 at the sectional.
Senior Claire Huffman started competition with a 6-2, 6-2 conquest of Champaign Central’s Kara Charney. She was ousted by eventual fourth-place finisher (and state-qualifier) Brooklynn Behrens, from Danville, 6-2, 6-2.
In doubles, the SJ-O unit of seniors Jacey Lewis and Allison Kearney topped M-S’ Molly Fried and Sophia Slupski, 6-3, 6-1, before falling to Urbana Uni High’s Lynette Zhang and Yeowoon Jung, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the sectional team race, SJ-O totaled 12 points and finished in fourth place in the 11-school meet, one point behind Champaign Centennial.
Meet champion Danville amassed 32 points and was followed by St. Thomas More (22 points) and Centennial (13 points).
For the season, SJ-O’s cumulative season record in doubles was 27-13. The Spartans had 15 different combinations and 12 won at least one match.
The leaders were Martlage and Rajlich with a 7-3 overall record. Lewis and Kearney were 2-1 together.
Juniors Emma Rydell and Katie McDermott were 4-1.
In singles, Huffman compiled a 7-6 season record. Dow was 6-7. Third on the team in singles wins was senior Grace Schmitz, 4-6.
SJ-O’s overall team record in singles in 2021 was 33-39. Sixteen different squad members had singles matches and 12 earned at least one victory.
A year ago, in their inaugural season, SJ-O scored four points at the sectional and tied for eighth place.
