The Warren County Lady Pioneer tennis team got its season started the right way with a huge outing over the Lady Red Raiders from Coffee County. The Lady Pioneers defeated the Lady Red Raiders in all but one match giving Warren County a 5-1 win in the girls singles matches.
Junior, Maeghan Bates won in a very convincing match with a final score of 8-0. Bates was the only Lady Pioneer who did not allow her opponent to win a game. Bates’ serve was on point and her return shots kept her opponent on her heels.
Chelsea Stewart is just a sophomore, but she was impressive to open the season by defeating her opponent 8-1. Stewart never looked rushed in her game and was very careful in placing her shots. Her opponent was constantly on the run to chase down Stewart’s shot.
Lauren Hennessee another sophomore also won her match by a final score of 8-1 in a very convincing manner. Hennessee returns after making it all the way to the District 6-AAA finals last year and looks like she will be picking up right where she left off.
Katie Phillips and Kendal Smith both juniors at Warren County won by a final score of 8-3 over the Lady Red Raiders. Phillips and Smith both handed defeats rather easily in their offensive campaign Thursday afternoon. Warren County had just enough left to pull away with victories.
The only defeat was obviously the closest match of the day. Senior, Tomomi Yago took it right to the limit against her opponent and even forced an extra game but fell by a score of 9-7 for the only win of the day going to Coffee County.
The Warren County Pioneers made a clean sweep of the Coffee County Red Raiders by winning all six singles matches. Two Pioneers played shutout matches Thursday afternoon and one of those matches belonged to senior Matthew Austin. Austin completely dominated the match against his Coffee County opponent. The second perfect game posted was by hard-hitting Pioneer sophomore Shuhei Sugawara. Austin and Sugawara executed their plans perfectly and Coffee County offered little resistance against the accuracy of these two Pioneer players.
Two other matches played by Warren County almost remained scoreless. Seniors, Jake Hunt and Blake Basham easily cruised to victory over Coffee County with 8-1 scores for both players. Hunt and Basham had two of the best service games of the day. If Coffee County was able to get a racket on the serve, chances are it was not a very good return or easily dealt with by the Pioneers.
Pioneer senior, Kirkland Sauer had a very good first outing of the season defeating his opponent by a score of 8-3. Once Sauer’s nerves settled and he got into a rhythm the game started to progress and he was able to separate himself from his opponent and claim another victory for Warren County.
Daniel Compos, another Pioneer senior defeated his opponent 8-4 in his match. Compos was constantly on the attack and began to make his opponent work harder to get to the ball. Compos then was able to get separation and move on for the win.
Coach Jessica Hines “These kids have an “I can and I will” attitudes and are overall just great kids! I’m so fortunate to have this unique opportunity. Each member of our team gives me perfect effort at practice and I saw that Thursday at the match too. I have great expectations for our season, win or lose, go Pioneers!”
The tennis teams face Shelbyville on March 17 at McMinnville Civic Center.
WCHS serves up wins
