Over the weekend the West Varsity Girls Tennis team traveled to Southern Illinois for a Dual Meet Invitational hosted by Belleville East and Edwardsville high schools. The team won 2 of 4 meets to place 10th overall in the 16-team field.
Their first meet on Friday was against Quincy, which they narrowly lost 2-3. Scoring points for West were the Doubles teams of Brittany Funk-Lindsey Sebade and Sarah Bonnett-Amanda Kirchner.
The second meet on Friday evening was against Belleville East's 2nd Squad. West won 5-0, with Funk-Sebade, Bonnett-Kirchner, and Sam Reitz-Christe Gannon winning at Doubles, and Renae Grilliot and Emily Howell coming out on top in their Singles matches.
On Saturday morning the girls faced O'Fallon Township High School. Lindsey Sebade injured her foot before the match and was barely able to walk, but with no substitutes available, she went ahead and played doubles. She turned in a courageous performance, with her and Brittany Funk winning a close match in straight sets at #1 Doubles. Bonnett-Kircher also pulled out a great comeback at #2 Doubles. After losing the first set and down 5-6 in the second, they won to tie the set at 6-6, then won the set in a tiebreaker, and clinched the match in a 10-point tiebreaker. In Singles, Bonnett, Grilliot, Funk, and Howell all won their matches for a 6-3 meet victory. Emily Howell won in impressive comeback fashion: after losing the first set 4-6, she won a close second set and then dominated in the 10-point tiebreaker.
The fourth and final match of the weekend was against Springfield Sacred-Heart Griffin. Like the meets on Friday, this was played with a 2 Singles / 3 Doubles match format. Despite another close and gritty performance by Funk-Sebade in Doubles, SHG won the meet 4-1, with Bonnett-Kircher (who went 4-0 in Doubles over the weekend) scoring West's sole point.
All in all a very solid team result, especially considering inuries and a short-handed roster. There were clutch performances all around. Nice job, 'Cats!!
