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EDWARDSVILLE – Edwardsville won two of three titles Friday and finished second in the other as the Tigers took the lead through Friday's doubles matches of the Southwestern Conference Girls Tennis Championship at the EHS Tennis Center.
The Tigers have 23 of 24 points to lead the competition going into Saturday's singles matches; Belleville East is second at 21 points, followed by O'Fallon (19), Belleville West (14), Alton (12), Granite City (8), Collinsville (7) and East St. Louis (3).
In the No. 1 flight, Edwardsville's Grace Desse/Abby Cimarolli won the title, defeating O'Fallon's M. Brunner/K. Macaluso 6-4, 7-5 in the final, while Alton's Abby Fischer/Hannah Macias finished fifth by defeating Granite's K. Singleton/M. Ware 6-1, 6-0.
In the second flight, Belleville East's J. Skaer/M. Hamilton defeated Mady Schrieber/Chloe Trimpe 7-6, 6-2 to take the championship, while Alton's Maddie Saenz/Nikki Lowe defeated the Warriors' O. Brinker/E. VanBuskirk 6-3, 6-0 in the fifth-place match.
In Flight No. 3, the Tigers' Natalie Karibian/Annie McGinnis defeated the Lancers' C. Smith/M. Buscher 6-2, 6-1 to claim that flight's championship, while Alton's Cali and Mackenzie Giertz took fifth with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-8 win over Collinsville's A. Burgess/C. Lentz.
Edwardsville head girls tennis coach Dave Lipe said he was really pleased with the first day of competition and said the Southwestern Conference this year is extremely competitive.
“I believe the Southwestern Conference is within the top five conferences in Illinois for girls tennis,” he said. “We reached the finals in three doubles events and have a two-point lead over O’Fallon. We have 18 hours more of tennis to go with singles play on Saturday.” We have to get up early and be ready to go.”
