Another impressive season for the Warren County High School girls tennis team ended one win short of a District 6-AAA championship.
For the second straight season, the Lady Pioneers fell in the finals of the district tournament. This year Rhea County played the role of spoiler as the Lady Eagles swept Warren County 4-0 Monday at Stone Memorial High School.
Warren County (12-2) was on an 11-game winning streak going into Monday’s finals match. The team’s lone loss in the regular season came to Rhea County in March, but coach David Dunlap was hopeful the momentum his team had created with the winning streak would continue in the championship match.
Instead, the Lady Eagles enjoyed another victory over the Lady Pioneers – in emphatic fashion.
Playing a best-of-seven match, Rhea County won the first four singles matches to leave no doubt who would take home the district title. In three of the four singles matches, the Lady Eagles won in straight sets.
Lexi Bowman, a District 6-AAA player of the year candidate, gave the Lady Eagles early momentum when she took out Katie Phillips swiftly in the No. 1 singles match. Playing sets to six in a best-of-three format, Bowman won both sets 6-1.
Mallory McWhorter followed with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Kendal Smith before Lindsay Smith pushed the Lady Pioneers to the brink of elimination with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Lauren Hennessee.
All the hopes for Warren County rested on Maren Podlesak and Tomomi Yago each claiming singles victories to push the match into doubles. While both Lady Pioneer players were able to take one set, neither could earn a victory.
Yago dropped her opening set 6-3 against Katelyn Travis before battling back to win the second set 6-2. On another court, Podlesak had taken down Shayla Bradley 6-3 in their first set, but dropped the second set 6-3 to set up a third and final set in both matches.
Travis clinched the district title for Rhea County with a 6-2 win over Yago while Podlesak’s match was stopped with her trailing 3-2 in the deciding set.
After losing a perfect season in the finals last year against Cookeville, falling in this year’s championship game was another tough blow for the Lady Pioneers. Coach Dunlap encouraged his team to look to the positives from this year and carry it into next season.
“I think the girls played great this year. They continued to be one of the top teams in our district,” said Dunlap. “I think this group can be right back in the mix next season.”
All five players who competed for the Lady Pioneers Monday could return to next year’s team. The lone Lady Pioneer senior was Elizabeth Oxley, an all-district performer in doubles.