The rival Trenton Lady Bulldogs and Chillicothe Lady Hornets will play the rubber match of their tennis season series, with Wednesday afternoon’s duel to decide the Class 1, District 16 championship. Trenton was able to defeat a tough Maryville squad on Tuesday afternoon, with Lauren Dolan’s three set victory over Emma Web-Kirkpatrick clinching a 5-4 victory for THS in the district semifinals.
Chillicothe, the #1 seed in districts, had an easier time of things against #4 seed Savannah, winning by a final score of 5-1 on Tuesday. The Lady Hornets will host the Lady Bulldogs at the tennis courts outside Danner Park, Wednesday at 4 o’clock.
In Trenton’s dramatic victory against Maryville, the Lady Bulldogs took a 2-1 lead through doubles play, with Samantha Mihalovich and Maddie Searcy teaming for an 8-2 win over Cayren Barnett and Morgan Goodridge, while Emma Gilham and Elle Neal rolled to an 8-2 win over Addison Hall and Kamryn Gastler. Singles play saw best 2 of 3 set rules, with three of the matches going the full three sets.
At #6 singles, Trenton’s Elle Neal tied Gastler 6-6, sending the first set of the match into a tiebreak. Neal dominated the tiebreak, winning 7-love to clinch the first set. However, Maryville’s Gastler rallied to win the final two sets, and the match, 6-4, 6-2. At #5 singles, Trenton’s Emma Gilham met a similar fate to Neal, winning the first set against Addison Hall 6-3, but falling in the final two sets 6-3, 6-2.
Playing at #3 and #4 singles, Trenton High School’s Samantha Mihalovich and Maddie Searcy had dominant victories for the host Lady Bulldogs, with Mihalovich routing Cayren Barnett 6-3, 6-love, while Searcy had a clean sweep of Morgan Goodridge, winning 6-love, 6-love.
Down 4-3, Maryville was forced to win the final two singles matches to claim the duel, and the Spoofhounds were able to tie the match at 4, with Taybrin Oglesby, at #1 singles, sweeping Trenton’s Claire Utley 6-2, 6-2.
With Utley still in her match, Trenton’s #2 singles player Lauren Dolan lost her first set to Web-Kirkpatrick 6-2. Dolan rallied to take the second set 6-3. With the last handful of points in the match played with the knowledge that the result would decide the district semifinal duel, Dolan held off a late third-set challenge from the resourceful Web-Kirkpatrick, with a drop shot ending the match, giving Dolan a 7-5 win in the final set, and sending Trenton to Chillicothe on Wednesday.
In the regular season, Trenton beat Chillicothe 6-3 at Trenton High School in later August, with the Lady Hornets returning the favor in mid-September, defeating Trenton on the Hornet home court, 5-4. Chillicothe is 15-3 and Trenton 12-2 on the fall season. The District 13 champion will play at either Chillicothe or Trenton in the Class 1 sectional round on Saturday, October 7th. Marshall hosts Odessa for the District 13 title on Wednesday afternoon at 4. St. Pius X won the District 16 title on Tuesday afternoon, 5-0 over Excelsior Springs, while Pembroke Hill hosts Barstow in the District 14 title match, Wednesday at 4 o’clock.
