The hills are alive with the sound of the weekly recap! This week saw the first high school boys matches in nearly two years, as EHS took on Belleville East in an exhibition on Tuesday. Our deepest thanks go to Dan Skaer for bringing the Lancers up north for some early-season tennis. Everyone got to play singles and doubles matches, and the Tigers took home an unofficial 8-4 win that won’t count in conference play.
Last Friday and Saturday, the boys travelled to the Derby City to play two matches at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, one of the most beautiful facilities around. On Friday, the Tigers defeated a strong DuPont Manual team 10-2 in an 8 singles, 4 doubles format. It was a great competitive effort up and down the lineup from all the boys, with everyone making solid improvement from the Belleville East match.
On Saturday it was an all-Tigers battle with St. Xavier. The once and future state champions of Kentucky showed why they’re one of the best programs in the nation, defeating Edwardsville 12-0. All the boys competed hard and received great experience facing such skilled players. Huge thanks to Head Coach Gil Downes for hosting both matches, and congratulations to him and his program for a positive atmosphere and what will almost certainly be another highly successful season.
Less positively, the JV boys were scheduled to open their official season in the Triad tournament on Saturday before rain canceled the event. Boooooo rain! The tournament will not be rescheduled.
This week the boys will stay busy: The JV has matches at Belleville East on Monday, and at home against O’Fallon on Wednesday. Varsity Tigers play at Chaminade in St. Louis on Thursday, before travelling north to Chicago during the weekend. EHS faces Jacobs High School from Algonquin on Friday, and competes in the Fremd (Palatine) tournament Saturday.
The last two weeks have seen great success from an individual tournament standpoint! Last weekend at the Level 7 at the Sunset Tennis Center, Gabi Hill (pictured, right) took 1st place in the Girls’ 14s Singles, while Zoe Byron (pictured, left) placed 2nd in the Girls 18s. This past weekend, Katie Woods won the Springfield Level 6 Girls’ 14s Singles, with Gabi placing 3rd this time. Great job girls!
Edwardsville JTT continues to see solid success, with each team improving and gaining valuable experience. Last week 18u Advanced narrowly defeated a strong MAC team 29-27, and this week downed Net Rushers 45-26. 18u Gold came up just short last week 35-40 against Creve Coeur, but followed it up with a solid 39-29 win against Sunset this week. The 14s team played well but lost to Vetta West, while both 12u Green teams took advantage of resting last week to earn wins this week, over Vetta Concord and MAC respectively.
