Hounds capture first District tennis title
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
The Maryville girls’ tennis team won the Class 1 District 16 Championship on Wednesday, Beating Trenton 5-0. Pictured front row are team manager Blake Clements, Emma Webb-Kirkpatrick, and head coach Nicole McGinness. Back row: TJ Oglesby, Maggie Kempf, Lauren Macali, Bailey White, Bethel Orshiso, and Marena Mendez.
While Maryville has its fair share of returning players from last year’s squad, it was the new kids on the block that helped seal the Spoofhounds’ first District Championship in school history on Tuesday.
Maryville beat Trenton 5-0 at the high rise courts on the campus of Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville.
Maryville head coach Nicole McGinness was happy for her team for finishing the job after the Spoofhounds lost in the District Finals to Chillicothe 5-4 last season.
“It feels really good,” she said. “This is the first time this has happened. I’m really proud of the girls to make it this far and be able to do this. (The loss to Chillicothe) has been on the varsity players’ minds the entire season. They wanted to get back here and wanted to win it this time and they did.”
Senior Lauren Macali beat Claire Utley 6-1, 6-3 in singles play before T.J, Oglesby, a first-year tennis player, helped seal the win with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Alainey Shipley-Fair. Marena Mendez, a transfer student from Texas contributed to the effort with an 8-5 victory, along with partner Bailey White, over Samantha Mihalovich and Madison Searcy.
She also took the first set 6-3 in her singles match before going up 4-1 in the second set.
Macali talked about how far her new team members had come and how big a role they played.
“When (T.J.) walked onto the court for the first time at the beginning of the season, she hadn’t really played that much,” McGinness said. “She had barely picked up a racquet and I’ve just seen so much improvement. Her serves and strokes overall have gotten so much better. Marena has been a great addition to the team. She’s been able to come in and play in that No. 2 singles spot. She’s been picking up wins left and right.”
Mendez hasn’t lost a regular season singles match (her only singles losses came in tournaments) and Oglesby has yet to lose a singles match since she joined the team. Oglesby and doubles partner Maggie Kempf (another newcomer) have lost just three times as a duo.
Macali and Bethel Orshiso won the No. 1 doubles match 8-4 and Oglesby teamed up with Maggie Kempf at the No. 3 doubles spot and got an 8-4 win of their own, giving Maryville the doubles sweep.
Macali and Orshiso were down 4-2 at one point before reeling off six straight wins to take the set and the match.
The momentum could have bounced back into Trenton’s favor with Macali and Orshiso up 5-4, but they were able to pull away.
“It was mainly just confidence,” Macali said. “When we were down 2-4, I remember stepping back and saying we should be winning this. We’ve been executing so well. Once we started getting into the later games, we started talking to each other a lot and communicating well.”
Macali took what she learned during the doubles match and put it to use against Utley in the singles match.
“I saw that she was struggling with some of the shorter balls, so I was trying to hit those,” Macali said. “I also noticed she was making more errors in the doubles match.”
As a senior, Macali wanted to set an example for the younger players to follow.
She was excited to be able to get the District Championship for the team in her final season.
“(I wanted to leave) a legacy,” Macali said. “We just won the first District Championship in (Maryville) tennis history, so that’s pretty good.”
Maryville will host individual District title play today with matches starting at 8:30 a.m.
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
Maryville’s Lauren Macali stretches out for a backhand return during the No. 1 singles match against Trenton’s Claire Utley in the Class 1, District 16 Championship on Wednesday. She won the match 6-1, 6-3.
By DAVID MERRILL Sports reporter
Maryville’s Emma Webb-Kirkpatrick goes into her forehand motion during the Spoofhounds’ 5-0 win over Trenton in the Class 1, District 16 Championship on Wednesday.
