BELLEVILLE/TRIAD - All four of Edwardsville's entries in the IHSA Class 2A Belleville East Sectional girls tennis tournament are heading to next weekend's state tournament in suburban Chicago.
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So are two of Jersey's entries in the Class 1A Triad Sectional.
The Tigers' Natalie Karibian and Abby Cimarolli in the singles draw and the doubles teams of Morgan Colbert/Grace Desse and Maria Mezo/Mackenzie Cadigan reached the semifinals of their respective draws to qualify for the state tournament Friday; the top four players in singles and doubles play advance to the state tournament in Buffalo Grove beginning Thursday.
The Tigers lead the team competition with 24 points on the day, ahead of O'Fallon with 20 points, Belleville East at 16 and Chatham Glenwood at 12.
Cimarolli defeated Belleville East's Maddie Buscher and Collinsville's Jennaka Cain to reach the semifinals while Karibian eliminated Rachel Shelley of Springfield and Hannah Reigle of Chatham Glenwood to reach the final four in singles play.
In doubles, Mezo/Cadigan got the semifinal with wins over O'Fallon's Mady Schreiber/Abbey Burnside and Chatham's Haneen Said/Anna Lytchekov while Colbert/Desse upended Bauer/Fiedler of Belleville West and Bollinger/Batterman of Belleville East to reach the final four.
In Class 1A, Jersey's Hailea Tepen reached the semifinals, where she will meet Triad's McCarthy while Ashton Tewell/Anne Snyders will meet O. Melichar/Nester of Belleville Althoff in Saturday's semifinal match.
The Crusaders are in the lead with 18 points, with the Panthers and Triad tied for second at 14 points, Roxana has 12 and Mascoutah, Highland and Metro East Lutheran are tied with 10 points each; Marquette has six and Civic Memorial and East Alton-Wood River are scoreless.
“We've had a few good matches,” said Panther coach Stote Reeder. “Maddie Bugger ended her career today, and that was a sad loss, but she played well and had a good season; I'm really proud of all the improvements she made. Hannah Hudson and Chelsea Maag just finished a 19-2 season; they lost to the No. 1 seed and they're both sophomores. We've got a lot to look forward to.”
“Ashton and Anne made it last year and Ashton's been up there twice already; she went there in her sophomore year. Hopefully, that experience pushes them through this match (which they won to advance); it'd be a great experience for Hailea, who's only in her second year of tennis, if she could get there. It'd be so awesome.”
Play begins in both tournaments at 9 a.m. Saturday; the state Class 1A and 2A tournaments – the first time the tennis tournament has been divided into classes – gets under way Oct. 20 and runs through Oct. 22.
