Memorial Tennis Girls Fight Hard at Conference

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Sophia Jiang

On September 28th and 29th, 10 Memorial girls competed in the Big 8 Conference Tennis Tournament held at Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The other schools competing included Sun Prairie East, Sun Prairie West, Madison East, Madison West, Madison Lafolette, Beloit Memorial, Middleton, Verona, Janesville Craig, and Janesville Parker. 

At #4 singles, junior Lila Olson placed 5th after taking a victory from Janesville Craig. At #3 singles, sophomore Cora Smith won her first match against Madison Lafolette to reach the semifinals (6-3, 6-3), fell to the 2nd seed of Madison West, and put up a good fight against Verona, falling short 5-7, 2-6, ultimately placing 4th. Senior Amy Yao, 6th seed, achieved 1 place better than her seed at #2 singles: in the 5th place match, she breezed past Verona 6-2, 6-0, who she previously fell to during the regular season. Junior Sophia Jiang at #1 singles put up a good fight against the #3 seed, Verona, falling short 4-6, 3-6. She then took down SP West (6-0, 6-0), then battled hard against West, ultimately losing in a close 2nd set tiebreak (1-6, 6-7, (4-7)), and placing 6th overall.

Memorial’s doubles girls, all seniors, performed at their highest level at Conference. The biggest upset of the season occurred when Mihika Shivakumar and Emily Cai, seeded 10th, ultimately became the conference champions at #3 doubles. They first breezed past SP West (6-0, 6-0). Next, they were able to oust Middleton (#2 seed) in a thrilling match tiebreak, winning the match 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. But they still had fuel left to take down West (#1 seed) in the finals, throwing down a 2-set win of 6-4, 6-3. At #2 doubles, Grace Bonnell and Addie Armstrong fought hard in two of their closest matches of the season: In the semifinals, they fell to Middleton (#1 seed) 6-4, 0-6, 8-10, and in the 3rd place match they fell to Verona (#3 seed) (7-5, 3-6, 5-10). Finally, Elfin Wiriyan and Elizabeth Wu outperformed their seed by 3 spots. The #6 seeded duo ousted Verona 6-3, 6-0, then proceeded to beat Craig 6-2, 6-1 in the third place match.

The team placed 4th, scoring 29 points total.