Seymour wraps up regular season on high note

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The regular season is officially over for the Seymour girls tennis team.

Wrapping up the week 3-1 after playing four times in five days, the Owls are postseason-bound.

Seymour defeated Jeffersonville 4-1 at home Friday to finish third in the eight-team Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament. The Owls’ only loss of the week was to eventual conference champion Columbus East.

They take a 12-6 record into next week’s sectional on their home courts.

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“To play as well as we did (Thursday) night against Brownstown, knowing they are a sectional opponent, and then to finish third in the conference is great for us,” Owls coach Jennifer Miller said. “We’re where we need to be going into the sectional next week.”

The sectional draw will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday. Seymour is 2-0 against sectional opponents, having defeated Scottsburg and Brownstown Central 5-0 in the regular season but not facing Austin or Trinity Lutheran.

On Friday, Seymour had a strong start in the first set at all positions, jumping ahead 3-0 in all of the singles bouts and 4-0 at No. 1 doubles.

Addie Rudge and Katie O’Mara never trailed in their No. 1 doubles match in winning 6-0, 6-2, notching the Owls’ first point of the night. With a 3-2 edge in the second set, the duo closed the match winning the next three games.

Seymour’s second point came from Hallie Crenshaw at No. 1 singles. After claiming the first set 6-2, she found herself behind 2-1 in the second set. The senior then powered through and won the next five games.

“Her back was bothering her a little bit, so for her to come out and play as strongly as she did and really get through both sets 6-2, 6-2 was great for her tonight,” Miller said.

In the first match of the season, Crenshaw lost the first set against Alayna Lacy but won the final two.

“That very first set (in the season-opener), she struggled a little bit, but she definitely came back and took care of business tonight,” Miller said. “If that girl had run Hallie at all, she would have really struggled with that because she just doesn’t have the movement with the way her hip and her back are feeling.”

The Owls clinched the match when Grace Otte and Rachel Collett walked off the court with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles. They trailed 2-1 in the first set before closing out strong, and then built a 4-1 lead in the second set.

Jeffersonville’s only point came when Emma Ellis defeated Seymour’s Kelli Armes 7-5, 6-4 at No. 3 singles. Armes won the first three games of the opener, but Ellis rallied with the next four games and held on. Armes held a 2-1 edge in the second set before Ellis again rallied and closed out the set.

The last match on the court was No. 2 singles. Seymour’s Megan Baurle cruised through the first set 6-1 but dropped the first two games of the second set. Winning two straight games pulled her within 4-3, and later she won back-to-back games to take a 6-5 lead, but Kate Henderson forced a tiebreaker and won it 10-2.

Since the outcome of the match was decided, the coaches agreed to have the girls play a super tiebreaker in lieu of a third set. With Baurle leading 4-2, she took the final six points.

“She had a really strong first set,” Miller said. “Her placement was really great, and she kind of dominated, and then to come back and finish strongly in that tiebreak 10-2 was a good night for her.”

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