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EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville bounced back from a semifinal loss to finish third in the Champions bracket of the Heather Bradshaw Invitational tournament at the EHS Tennis Center Saturday.
The Tigers defeated Carbondale in a first-round match and Crystal Lake Prairie Ridge of suburban Chicago in a quarterfinal match Friday to move into Saturday morning's semifinal match, where they dropped a 5-0 decision to Winnetka New Trier No. 1 to be relegated to the third-place match; the Tigers claimed third with a 3-2 win over New Trier No. 2, with Natalie Karibian winning her singles match to clinch the win and Grace Desse/Abby Cimarolli and Mady Schreiber/Chloe Trimpe winning doubles matches.
In the Futures bracket of the competition, Metro East Lutheran bounced back from a pair of Friday losses to defeat Waterloo 5-4 to finish fifth in the flight.
Edwardsville head girls tennis coach Dave Lipe said overall, his Tigers had a good weekend.
“We did a lot of things well,” he said. “We continue to improve from a personal standpoint and our team is learning to compete with toughness.”
Lipe thanked Scott Credit Union for being presenting sponsor for the tournament. The site directors at other locations from Gordon Moore Park in Alton and all the way to Mascoutah were a big help, he said.
“It takes a lot to pull this off,” he said. “From a tournament director standpoint, I feel good about the overall production. Our assistant coaches did a great job of coaching the kids while I performed the tournament director duties. We are very optimistic about the rest of the season and where we need to go and what we need to do to have a successful season.”
The Tigers play a pair of Southwestern Conference matches to open their league campaign Tuesday, heading to Alton at 3:30 p.m. and hosting East St. Louis at 4 p.m.; the Knights host East Alton-Wood River for a Tuesday meet.
