Columbus East needed only about 40 minutes to take a 2-0 lead on Bedford North Lawrence in Wednesday’s semifinals of the Hoosier Hills Conference girls tennis tournament.
Picking up the third and deciding point proved to be much more difficult.
The Olympians finally broke through with their third point after a three-set, two-plus-hour match at No. 3 singles. Louna Prince recovered from a subpar second set to pull out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win against Kiara Terry and send East to the conference finals for the second consecutive year.
“I was proud particularly of Louna for dropping that second set and coming right back and upping her energy,” East coach Matt Malinsky said. “She rose to the challenge, and she really came up big right there for us.”
The Olympians (9-6) move into Friday’s HHC final at Floyd Central. East, which broke a 35-year drought in winning last year’s conference title, will try for two in a row.
Hozden got the Olympians off to a flying start Wednesday with a 6-0, 6-0 win against Alex Godsey at No. 2 singles.
“I was just trying to get the win for the team because conference is really important for us, just trying to get the title again,” Hodzen said.
Just a couple minutes later, East’s Megna Chari finished off a 6-0, 6-0 victory against Presley Clark at No. 1 singles.
“I just focused on my shots and consistency and tried to make her make the mistakes,” Chari said. “I just worked on my shots.”
The Stars got back into the match with a victory at No. 2 doubles. Sarah Gaither and Abbey Bridges beat the Olympians’ Jenna Shoaf and Ayano Nomura 6-0, 6-0.
At that point, East was up a set at both No. 3 singles and No. 1 doubles. But Bedford turned the tide with second-set victories at both spots to force third sets.
“I think there was a lot of pressure because Megna and Kathryn had already won,” Prince said. “It was kind of up to me and (No. 1 doubles) to win the match, and after I lost the second set, really bad, I just felt a lot of pressure, but I came back and won.”
That left only the No. 1 doubles match to be completed. The Stars’ McKenzie Messmore and Abby Riley claimed a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory against Maddy Rhodes and Emie Kiser.
The Olympians’ win avenges a 3-2 loss at Bedford on April 30, but East has mixed up its lineup since then.
“(Chari and Hodzen) really cruised in those first two matches, and I kind of expected that,” Malinsky said. “But I expected a tough fight from those other two because we saw them the first time, and we knew what their lineup looked like already, so we were anticipating a tough battle there.”
