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By Don Eskins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
On Wednesday, Oct. 3, the Springfield Catholic Fightin’ Irish rolled past the Bolivar Liberators 5-1 to pick up a 2018 Class 1 District 9 tennis tournament championship.
But the Irish weren’t finished yet. On Friday they picked up two more C1D9 tournament gems collecting championships in both singles and doubles tournament play at home.
The Fightin Irish’s Erin Jarvis downed Greenwood’s Dannie Wilson 6-2, 6-2 to grab this year’s C1D9 singles title while teammates Ashley Andrews and Claire Griesemer defeated Osage’s Elise Davis and Kylie Misenheimer 6-1, 6-3 to claim the 2018 doubles championship.
The Irish will now turn their attention to next week’s sectional tournament. Singles and doubles sectional play will take place on Tuesday at Logan-Rogersville.
CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE TOURNAMENT
“I’m really proud of the efforts our kids put out today. It was especially great to see Erin, Ashley and Claire grab singles and doubles titles- they’ve worked really hard all season to get to this point in the year. This was their day and they truly deserved it,” Irish coach Martin Versteeg said. ” And although we won’t be taking as many girls with us to Tuesday’s individual sectionals at Logan-Rogersville as we would have liked to- our girls gave it their best shots and that’s all I can ask.”
While Versteeg’s charges may have collected a sweep in all major district events in 2018 the Irish coach was quick to point out that his girls have had to work very hard this year to achieve this milestone.
“Over the past three years our kids have experienced a great deal of success making it to the final four, as a team, for the past two years,” said the Irish coach. “So in a lot of ways they’ve been targeted by other schools who know what they’re capable of doing. They always get other team’s best efforts so they’ve had to stay at the top of their game every time they walk out on the courts.”
Getting to state is the Irish’s ultimate goal, as it is with all prep teams, and while they took some time to enjoy the moment Friday afternoon it’s clear that they all understand just how important next week’s sectionals are to them.
“Winning the district title feels really great. Dannie has a great first serve so I felt that if I was to win today I’d have to attack her second serve. That’s what I did and it paid off for me,” said the Irish’s Jarvis. “Now I’m really excited about going to sectionals. Hopefully I’ll be able to play my best and get to state in singles.”
“Last year Ashley and I finished as district tournament runner-ups so coming back this year and winning really feels good,” said Irish sophomore Claire Griesemer. “We hope to continue playing well next week in sectionals also, it’s another big step towards moving on to state.”
“I’m a senior this year,” said Andrews. “Playing doubles with Claire for the past two years has been really special. I’m hoping we can go to sectionals and play as well as we have been. We’re already going to state as a team but we want to make it in doubles also. We still have a lot to play for next week.”
Both first and second place finishers in singles and doubles play at Friday’s C1D9 tournament will advance on to sectional play next week.
Claiming third place in doubles competition on Friday was Bolivar’s Paige Martin and Megan Roberts. Martin and Roberts defeated Alexis Berry and Raegan Kelly, also of Bolivar.
