Springfield Catholic needed all the help it could muster to turn back a surging Glendale squad in a 5-4 dual victory Monday afternoon.
After sweeping through doubles 3-0, the Lady Irish headed into the singles portion of the contest needing only a pair of wins to secure the overall team victory.
As the singles matches wore on at Cooper Tennis Complex, momentum began to shift, and Catholic soon found itself in a dogfight. With Glendale winning or leading four of the first five matches, the Lady Irish turned to the bottom of the lineup for a rally-killer.
No. 6 responded.
PHOTOS: GLENDALE VS. CATHOLIC TENNIS
In a contest featuring three of the top ten finishers from last season’s state tournament in Anna Rader (4th), Emily Kroutil (5th) and Rachel Dwyer (8th), it was Catholic’s Maggie Meek who ended up stealing the spotlight.
Meek’s 8-4 victory over Sydney Johnson sealed the 5-4 win for the Lady Irish.
“It was close,” Meek said. “We kept going back and forth, and I’d always be up by one. Finally, I won two games in a row and got a little lead. I actually didn’t know it came down to my game, but I just really wanted to win.”
Rader, a 4th place finisher at state, also won both her matches for the Lady Irish. Rader and Kroutil bested Dwyer and Brooke Smith 9-7 in doubles, then the Catholic senior downed Smith 8-2 in singles.
Rader and Kroutil had to find some comeback magic of their own. The Catholic duo dug themselves a 5-0hole to start the No. 1 doubles match before pausing to make an adjustment.
“We knew when it was getting up there, that we needed to change something up,” Rader said. “The one-up, one-back wasn’t working, so we both moved off the net and back to the baseline. It took the pressure off of us at the net, and we started hitting our strokes like we normally need to.”
Catholic head coach Martin VerSteeg was pleased with Rader’s transition through the singles match.
“She’s been coming around,” VerSteeg said. “Her shoulder’s been bothering her a bit, but the thing about Anna … I can’t keep her off the court. She’s got to learn to back off a little and pace herself, but she’s starting to round out.”
For Glendale and head coach Mark Penticuff, the season is still early, and the Lady Falcons are slowly rounding into form. Were it not for a few key points in the doubles matches, things could have turned out differently.
“We had a tough match with Central this season where we won doubles and struggled with singles,” Penticuff said. “We did the exact opposite thing here. So we righted the ship on singles and just had a doubles match that got away from us."
Both teams are back in action on Tuesday. Catholic (4-0) hosts Reeds Spring, while Glendale (4-2) welcomes Joplin to Cooper Tennis Complex.
Springfield Catholic – 5, Glendale – 4
Doubles Results
1 – Emily Kroutil/Anna Rader defeat Rachel Dwyer/Brooke Smith (9-7) – Catholic
2 – Cecilia Bailey/Casey Lee defeat Alexys Carroll/Hannah Loder (8-6) – Catholic
3 – Ashley Andrews/Maggie Meek defeat Alexa Borbas/Sydney Johnson (8-5) – Catholic
Singles Results
1 – Dwyer defeats Kroutil (8-2) – Glendale
2 – Rader defeats Smith (8-2) – Catholic
3 – Carroll defeats Bailey (8-2) – Glendale
4 – Loder defeats Lee (8-4) – Glendale
5 – Borbas defeats Andrews (8-4) – Glendale
6 – Meek defeats Johnson (9-7) – Catholic
