Lady Stars open tennis sectionals with win

By Eric Smith/The Lebanon Reporter

Lebanon May 16, 2008 12:26 am

— In their regular season meeting with Frankfort, the Western Boone girls tennis team secured a 4-1 win en route to its conference championship. The Lady Stars did not expect things to be so easy the second time around in Thursday’s first round of sectionals at Lebanon, and it wasn’t.
Simply getting the win was what mattered, and WeBo accomplished that, beating the Lady Dogs 3-2.
The Western Boone No. 1 and No. 2 singles players took care of business first, as sophomores Brittney Horlacher and Abby Hanson pulled out convincing victories. Horlacher took down Frankfort’s No. 1 Samantha Montgomery 7-5, 6-2.
On the other side of the fence, Hanson defeated Taylor Hackerd 6-0, 6-3.
“They both played very well today,” Western Boone head coach Allyson Gardner said of Horlacher and Hanson.
In No. 3 singles, Frankfort’s Madison Donoho kept her team right in the thick of it with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Western Boone’s Alexandra Watters.
The singles players, coaches, and fans settled in to watch the two doubles matches go three sets each.
Western Boone’s No. 1 doubles team of Teale Rutledge and Molly Coy struggled mightily early-on, dropping the first set 1-6 to Frankfort’s Tiffany Barrios and Cassandra Conklin. They pulled it together immediately in the second set and lost just one game the rest of the way. They took the second set 6-1, and finished out the match with a 6-0 third-set victory, officially advancing the Lady Stars to the next round of sectionals.
“I was most impressed today with our No. 1 doubles,” Gardner said. “They played the way they were capable of all season.”
The No. 2 doubles match was as thrilling as any played on the day. Frankfort’s Emilee Benge and Kenzie Huddleston won the first set over WeBo’s Bailey Keith and Sarah Brindle, 6-3, but the Lady Stars fought back to take the second set 6-4.
The third set went all the way to a tiebreaker, but Frankfort pulled out the 7-6 (7-3) win.
Western Boone took the overall win, but it doesn’t get any easier. Today, they will take on Lebanon, who is hungry for a re-match after the May 5 loss at Western Boone, 3-2.
“We know it’s not going to be easy. We have to play our game and not let them take us out of ours,” Gardner said.
All of the second-round action starts at 4:30 p.m. today at Lebanon High School. Lebanon will take on Western Boone, while Zionsville gets started against Rossville.