A triple crown, a three-peat and a couple of firsts put an exclamation point on an extraordinary two weekends for St. Louis players in Missouri’s girls tennis state championships.
John Burroughs, Visitation and Villa Duchesne each won team titles Saturday at Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield. That gave St. Louis a clean sweep of team titles after winning five of the six individual state championships last weekend in the first year for Missouri to have three classifications in tennis.
Visitation completed the Class 2 triple crown as it followed up its singles and doubles titles with a 5-0 victory over St. Pius X of Kansas City.
Last week during the individual tournament, Visitation got Class 2 state titles from Laura Finnie in singles and the sister duo of Sophia McLellan and Suzanna McLellan in doubles.
“When I was a freshman I knew we had a great team and we kept adding to it,” Vivettes senior Annie Wilkinson said. "In the past we could get only so far with John Burroughs in our class. We deserved this. Our focus was on doubles strategy and once we got the three wins in doubles we knew we could relax in singles."
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In Saturday’s team final, the McLellans defeated Maisie Markowitz and Aramas Pernice 8-2 at No. 1 doubles. Those two games were the only ones the Vivettes lost in the championship match.
Finnie and Wilkinson and the team of Flora Eidson and Sejal Sekhar won 8-0 at No. 2 and 3 doubles. Wilkinson and Sekhar were the first two singles matches off the court after winning 6-0, 6-0 at No. 5 and 6 singles.
"It's insane that we won the triple crown," said Suzanna McLellan, whose mother Sara was a part of the last Visitation triple crown winner in 1987. "I still can't believe it."
In Class 1, it was the Lizzie and Izzy show with a strong supporting cast helped Villa Duchesne to its first team title. The Saints swept Bolivar, winning 5-0 in the Class 1 title game.
Last weekend, senior Lizzie Barlow won the Class 1 girls singles championship for Villa Duchense.
"We finally get a tennis banner in the gym," said Izzy Cancila, who like Barlow is a senior. "It couldn't be better than to finish it off by winning 5-0."
That was the score in each and every one of Villa's post-season matches, as was the case with Visitation in Class 2.
"All postseason these girls kept getting better and better in both singles and doubles," said Villa Duchesne’s Brian Kirk, who like Visitation's Ashley Hennis is a first-year head coach with the program. "It was amazing to take over a team with this much talent and these girls love each other."
The Class 1 championship was played indoors.
The first thing the Saints players did after hugging each other on court was to run up the stairs and outdoors, where they were greeted by family and friends who were not allowed inside to watch the matches because of COVID-19 restrictions.
"It's just so exciting to end my senior year like this," said Barlow, who was one of the two singles players to finish in the team final as she beat Megan Roberts 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1.
Sophya Qureshi won the clincher at No. 6 over Brynley Waters 6-4, 6-0 after losing the first three games.
John Burroughs closed out the tournament with its third consecutive championship and first in the newly created Class 3.
Whereas Villa Duchesne and Visitation needed less than 90 minutes to finish, the Bombers needed close to three hours to defeat Pembroke Hill 5-2.
"We had a tough road,” said John Burroughs senior Ainsley Heidbreder, noting a district championship victory against St. Joseph’s and then Friday’s semifinal against Rock Bridge.
"We really had to earn this and it makes us appreciate it more."
Heidbreder was involved in a pair of crucial wins Saturday. She teamed with Nina Zhu to win 9-8 at No. 2 doubles. The tiebreaker was even at 5-5 and the Bombers won the last two points, the final one on a Heidbreder volley.
"That was a big win for us," Heidbreder said. "It gave us some confidence going into singles and calmed some nerves."
John Burroughs led 2-1 after doubles as Lily Wallther and Sahana Madala defeated Adella Castaner and Alisha Castaner 8-2 at No. 1.
The Bombers followed by sweeping the top three singles spots. Madala was first off the court with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Alisha Castaner at No. 2.
Heidbreder came back from to defeat Helen Hendricks 7-5, 6-2 at No. 3 singles after trailing 5-3 in the first set.
Class 3 singles champion Walther capped the team title with a 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 win over Adella Castaner.
"Lily was on the court next to me and it was so great to see her go to another gear," Heidbreder said. "She was fantastic."
Bombers coach Lindsay Carlile praised the effort of seniors Walther, Heidbreder and Zhu to close out their high school careers with another title.
"The accomplishments this group of seniors has achieved together are nothing short of remarkable," Carlile said. "But it’s the culture of the program that these girls have transformed which is their greatest gift to JBS tennis. They've shown these freshmen and our entire program that it's possible to work hard and have fun."