BUFFALO GROVE – Edwardsville's girls’ tennis pair of Morgan Colbert and Grace Desse finished fourth in the doubles competition of this weekend's IHSA Class 2A Girls Tennis Championship in the Chicago suburb of Buffalo Grove Saturday.
Get The Latest News!
Don't miss our top stories and need-to-know news everyday in your inbox.
Desse/Cobert reached the semifinals on Friday, but fell to Hinsdale Central's Erika Oku/Megan Guenther 6-3, 6-3, then the pair dropped the third-place match to Lincolnshire Stevenson's Gina Kondos/Elizabeth Ferdman 6-2, 6-3.
Oku/Guenther dropped the final to Northbrook Glenbrook North's Colette and Catherine O'Regan 6-2, 6-2, while LaGrange Lyons' Lahari Yelamanchilli took the singles state title over Evanston's Anastasia Goncharova 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (8-6).
“Things went really well and we finished fifth place overall as a team and fourth place in doubles,” Coach Lipe said. “The girls played and lost to the eventual champion Hinsdale Central and a very good team from Lincolnshire Stevenson. The competition was very stiff, especially on Saturday. Both doubles teams we faced were high national level talents. We stayed right with them. I am very proud of the girls. I am very proud to finish fifth with the varsity team. We had an incredible year and this was the cherry on top of the sundae.”
Senior Morgan Colbert said she thought the fifth-place team finish and fourth place in doubles was quite an accomplishment.
“We played tough competition all weekend,” she said. “We fought hard each and every point. I am very happy how we played today.”
Junior Grace Desse said she thought it was a real confidence boost for the team to hang with the Chicago teams.
“This gave me motivation to work harder for next year,” she said. “I am excited about coming back next year and getting an even better finish than this year. I am going to keep working on my game and hope that we keep improving on our whole team.”
Senior Mackenzie Cadagin ended her high school career at the state tournament.
“I am proud we finished best in our history,” she said. “It showed how hard work in the off-season and in-season paid off. We are such a good group of friends. We put in a lot of time and worked hard together.”
Grace Trimpe made the trip with the team and she said Coach Lipe brought her up to watch.
“It was really fun to watch good tennis from all our teammates,” she said.
