Saint Louis, Mo—
The persistent women's tennis team chase down and return too many tennis balls in the 2019 SLIAC championships, defeating Greenville 5-4. The team had to repeat a thrilling performance from the day before in order to win the championships. In the semis the team was down 2-1 after the doubles and had to win four singles matches to earn a spot in the finals. Once again the team won first doubles but lost 2
nd and 3
rd in close matches. They would have to win four singles matches from the Greenville team they had previously only won two singles matches against.
Fighting off the disappointment of the two doubles losses the team had to regroup and spur each other on. In the previous Principia Greenville match, Principia had won 2 doubles and Greenville had one 4 singles. In the finals two of our singles players would have to reverse the results of the first match.
In singles,
Paige Cooley, #1 singles, went to work quickly and won 6-0,6-0 earning Principia a tie in match score at 2-2. As one looked down the five courts
Gabby Kitchingman, #2 singles, was in a battle against an opponent she had lost to a few weeks ago. The rest of the Principia team trailed and #3-#6 singles lost the first set. Greenville had momentum going into the singles and they were pulling away.
Gabby Kitchingman, #2 singles, had her personal best in the finals when she played steady tennis, ran down every ball and committed to keeping the ball in the court. She won her match 7-5, 6-1. Principia took a short lead. In the next few minutes,
Dani Lomascolo, #5 singles, playing long points and winning more games than in her previous match with Greenville, lost. The team match score was 3-3.
Playing #3 singles,
Greer Sprague bounced back from a first set loss and outplayed her opponent to win the next two sets. She only lost one game. Greer stayed at the baseline and moved her opponent around the court forcing errors. For a brief moment Principia led 4-3. During this time
Sarah Switzer, #6 singles, was struggling tenaciously through long points and games. In one stretch, Sarah had only finished one game on court six, as the rest of the courts had finished four or five games and changed ends several times. Sarah played well and showed her improvement over the season but was not able to overcome the steady play of her opponent. The team score was tied at 4-4.
Now all eyes turned to the play at court four where Principia's #4 singles player, senior,
Hallie Jones resisting defeat, courageously stood firm and denied her opponent a second set win, to close out the championship match. Hallie had lost the first set, was down 5-3 in the second set. If she lost this set the match was over as Greenville's #5 and #6 players were close to finishing their matches with wins. Hallie held her serve and changed ends. The Greenville opponent was serving at 5-4 to win the match and seal a Greenville Championship. Hallie lost the first 3 points of the game and was down triple match point. Hallie said in that moment, "I decided I was not going to miss, I was going to return every ball." She did! She broke that game and evened the second set at 5-5. Hallie held serve and broke to take a 7-5 win for the second set.
The season was on
Hallie Jones' racquet, a college career defining moment. Hallie took a lead in the third set and it looked like a championship for Principia, but as all great competition goes the opponent fought back and was serving at 4-5 to even the third set. Hallie played steady again and returned to her commitment from the second set to return every ball. She was in the lead at 15-40, ready to break serve for a win. The constant and continuous running around the court caught up to Hallie at this point and she had to take an injury timeout for cramping. Hallie was flat out on the tennis court. After the allowed injury timeout, the umpire came over and said, "you need to default or play." Resilient, Hallie limped her way to the advantage court to play out the second championship point. The opponent served and the two women played out an 11 shot rally. The Greenville opponent wanted to move Hallie around the court but Hallie limped to each ball, stretching and scrambling, she got one more shot over and the opponent then hit the ball into the net. Game, set, match and match Championship to Principia! She crumpled on the court and the team ran over and dogpiled the victor.
It was a team win! Principia women's tennis team courageous, united and strong excelled at the right moment and brought home a SLIAC Championship to Principia.
