(Chelsea Update would like to thank Matt Pedlow for the information and photo in this story.)
The Chelsea girls tennis team won the SEC White Division title Tuesday, defeating Dexter, Adrian, and Lincoln.
Chelsea finished with 22 points and Dexter had 18.
Winning flights for Chelsea were Mackenzie Benning at 1 singles. Benning played a great match against Dexter today, she went into a third set tiebreak and prevailed after struggling through the first set. Her opponent is a very nice player and moved Mackenzie around the court and hit great finishing balls, but Benning picked up her game during the 2nd set and proved to be too much, coach Matt Pedlow said.
At 2 singles, Callie Brannon went undefeated on the day. Brannon played some very nice tennis for us, she was a runner-up at regionals and has played great all season, Pedlow said. Her leadership has been great for the younger girls – Callie typically doesn’t take long to figure out weaknesses in her opponent and use it to her advantage.
At three singles, Anna Argento finished in second place after losing a very tough match against a quality Dexter opponent. She also finished 2nd at regionals but played a great match against Lincoln.
At 4 singles, Emma Catalina came in 2nd to Dexter today after defeating both Adrian and Lincoln.
Chelsea swept all flights in doubles today with 1 and 2 doubles needing a third set tiebreak to win. Our 1 doubles team of Taylor Schrock and Carli Martin have had a challenging season, but played their best tennis of the season today. In their match against Dexter they won 6-3 in the first set, lost 3-6 in the second set, but won 10 straight points to win the tiebreak. Carli was very aggressive at the net today and proved to be the difference in the match, Pedlow said.
Dexter has a real nice 1 doubles team that had beaten us pretty handily earlier in the year, but Taylor and Carli came in with a game plan that worked well, the coach said.
The 2 doubles team of Maddie Pedlow and Julia Schachinger also needed a 3rd set tiebreak to defeat Dexter after losing the first set 6-2, then getting down 4-1 in the 2nd set. The girls battled to win point after point, Julia stroked the ball well and kept them in the game when things were looking bleak, the coach said. They then gained momentum by winning 7-5 in the 2nd set, which allowed them to win the third.
At 3 doubles, the team of Abbi Burris and Gabby Noble won their matches today. They played by far the best tennis they’ve played all season today, they really never were in doubt in any of their matches and I’m very proud of their performance, Pedlow said.
The 4 doubles team of Kendall Tucker and Morgan Moore won their flight today, which means they’ve only lost one match all year. At this point, they are 20-1 this season with their only loss coming at Skyline.
“I’m proud of this group of girls, we lost 11 out of the 15 girls on varsity from last year. This group has continuously exceeded expectations this season, and I look forward to seeing how they do at the State Finals meet on June 3,” Pedlow said.
