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EDWARDSVILLE - Three of the Edwardsville High girls tennis team players - Jessa Earnhardt, Abby Liu and Jensen Weedman - all had great matches in the bottom three singles spots, winning all three as the Tigers' split squad defeated Collinsville 9-0 in a Southwestern Conference dual meet played Tuesday afternoon at the Edwardsville Tennis Center.
The win enabled Edwardsville to sweep the conference slate at 6-0, while a second Tigers' team won at Waterloo 7-2 to complete a very good day for the team.
Edwardsville head coach Dave Lipe, who ran the team that played at home, was very pleased with how the second half of the lineup played.
"We had a lot of girls in the lineup tonight, and our JV girls who got to play multiple times, like three or four times, and so, I'm really, really happy about that," Coach Lipe said. "Sometimes, the other teams don't have as many kids, sometimes, you don't have enough courts, but tonight, it worked out well. We split our squad, and we had a nice match at Waterloo. I can speak for the results here, and we played three girls who play in our top six here played one-two-three, and then the four through six girls who were what I call our second team in our top 12, and those girls all had great matches. Jensen Weedman was down in her first set, but she showed a lot of poise for a sophomore to come back and play as well as she did, same for Jessa Earnhardt, played very well at number four singles, and Abby Liu, as a senior, who played quite well at number five singles."
Lipe felt it was very good to have everyone in the lineup on Tuesday, and was very proud of all of his players.
"It was great to have all of these girls in the lineup," Lipe said, "So proud of all of them. Like I said, Jessa, Abby and Jensen, all singles, I thought they played all great. It was a great opportunity for these girls to get experience, Jessa and Jensen especially. With doubles, I thought we played a little bit nervous in some spots, but a lot of these girls don't have experience playing together. Credit Collinsville for coming out and playing great in doubles, and I thought we had some competitive matches. I thought Jensen, like I said, she showed a lot of poise, especially for a sophomore, came back strong in the second set. I was happy for Abby Liu to get a chance to play tonight. Like I said, all of our girls who played tonight who played exhibition, I was really proud of our girls who played exhibition. They may not get their names in the paper, but they matter, and they played well, and I'm proud of them."
The doubles matches were played first, and the Tigers broke out on top when Hannah Colbert and Morgan Marshall won over Lindsay Taylor and Alyssa Garcia 8-2. Chloe Koons and Earnhardt won their match over Anna Falbe and Loghan Phetsadasack 8-3, and Weedman and Zoe Byron won over Abbi Olsson and Brinna Shea 8-2.
In the singles matches, Koons defeated Taylor 6-1, 6-0, and Colbert won over Garcia 6-0, 6-0. Marshall then defeated Falbe by the same 6-0, 6-0 score, and Earnhardt defeated Phetsadasack 6-3, 6-2. In the final two singles matches, Liu won over Olsson 6-2, 6-2, and Weedman defeated Shea 7-5, 6-0.
The Tigers host Mascoutah in a dual meet Thursday afternoon starting at 3:30 p.m., then host their annual Southern Illinois Duals this weekend at the Tennis Center, with matches starting at 3 p.m. Friday, and 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
