BLOOMINGTON — Battling cramps in both legs and with the team title already clinched, Yijiang Zhao had little more than pride keeping her on the tennis court. Pride, and a whole lot of guts.
Columbus North pulled out a 4-1 win over Bloomington North to claim its third-straight regional title in girls tennis and 20th overall Thursday on Bloomington North’s home courts. And while all of the 14th-ranked Bull Dogs played well, nobody displayed the level of courage as one of their senior leaders, Zhao.
“Yijiang really worked her way through it,” Columbus North coach Kendal Hammel said. “It was a gutsy match, and she played a great match. That was one of the best matches I’ve seen her play honestly because Joy (Bhattacharya) gave her everything.”
The Bull Dogs (15-5) will face 11th-ranked Jasper (16-4) in the semistate at Jasper at noon Saturday. The winner advances to the state quarterfinals next weekend.
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Zhao had her way early with Bhattacharya, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first set. But she slowly began to tighten, and leading 5-4, she went down with a painful cramp in her right leg that left in her on the court for nearly 10 minutes.
Columbus North was leading the team match 2-1 at the time with the No. 2 doubles team in a tight battle. Cramping or not, Zhao knew that she had to finish her match.
“It was really bad. I started to cramp on my calf and then on my sides,” Zhao said. “At that point, I couldn’t walk.”
After the timeout, Zhao recovered to win the first set 7-5. As she waited for the second set to start, her teammates Ali Bergman and Servane Cloteaux, finished off a 6-2, 7-5 win over Bloomington’s Jade Vasquez and Rachel Barrett at No. 2 doubles to clinch the regional crown.
At that point, Zhao could have retired, and nobody would have thought any less of her. She admits that the thought crossed her mind.
“If I had lost the second set, I would have retired, but I thought, let’s keep going and see what happens,” Zhao said. “Because I had already won the first set, and that’s not a big stretch, I’ll just do my best and see how it goes.”
Forced to abandon her power game, Zhao had to rely on her smarts to defeat Bhattacharya, running her opponent all over the court with pinpoint shots.
“I couldn’t run for the ball anyway so I started stroking the ball and going for my corners,” Zhao said.
Pausing between every point to stretch, Zhao recovered from a 2-1 deficit in the second set to win the final five games and claim the victory 7-5, 6-2 in a match that lasted over three hours and did not finish until the sun had set in the west.
The Bull Dogs also got a strong 6-2, 6-1 win by Jaline Tay at No. 3 singles over the Cougars’ Katie Rusche and a 6-0, 6-2 win by the No. 1 doubles duo of Madelyn Sanders and Eva Chevalier against Isabel Flynn and Kayley Ryan.
At No. 2 singles, Columbus North’s Shweta Srinivasan fell 6-1, 6-0 to Lillian McAfee.
“That No. 2 doubles spot was a little bit shaky there. It could have gone either way. We were down 5-4 and they came back,” Hammel said. “One doubles did a good job. Jaline was awesome. She’s just a fighter. At 2 singles, Shweta just didn’t play as well as I know that she can, but the girl against her played really well.”
The Columbus East doubles duo of Megna Chari and Kathryn Hodzen, set to play in the individual tournament, did not have a match Thursday and move automatically onto the regional round next week.
