Eaton tennis wins three, improves to 9-6

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EATON — The Eaton girls tennis team picked up three wins last week, bringing their overall record to 9-6.

“We had just played Edgewood on Saturday, Sept. 10, at the Preble Shawnee Invite, so we had an idea of what we were facing,” said Eaton coach John Hitchcock. “All of our positions were able to repeat their Saturday performances with the exception of one.”

Allison Cave at third singles lost a very close match to Edgewood on Saturday, taking a second place finish.

“On Monday, though, she was determined to get a win and played with a motivated spirit,” Hitchcock said. “She had to battle the whole way but she was able to win 6-3, 7-5. Quinlyn Sittloh had to play a quality senior in Hannah Clemmons, and played her very well and tough at first singles. She had the girl on the ropes in the second set but she lost 2-6, 5-7.”

Second singles Madison McKinley won 7-5, 6-0. But both doubles teams of Katelyn Niehaus/Tori Studebaker, and Sam Gramaglia/Addie Bell won their matches to seal the victory.

The team took care of business on Wednesday, Sept. 14, at home against West Carrollton.

“We faced a team that graduated their entire varsity squad, so we just had to play mistake-free tennis,” said Hitchcock.

Sittloh won 6-0, 6-0. McKinley won 6-3, 6-1, and Cave won as well, 6-0, 6-1.

The doubles team of Niehaus/Studebaker won 6-1, 6-1, while Bell/Gramaglia won 6-0, 6-0.

On Thursday, Sept. 15, the Lady Eagles were able to get a key win over league rival Valley View. The team won 4-1, bringing their league record to 3-3 — currently fourth in the Southwestern Buckeye League’s Southwestern Division.

“Both doubles teams got wins and second and third singles got wins,” said Hitchcock. “But some girls really had to work for them. Our first doubles team of Katelyn Niehaus and Tori Studebaker dropped their first set 2-6 but played smart and hard and won the next two 6-4, 6-4. And once again, Allison Cave had her work cut out for her and had to go three sets after losing a tightly contested second set, 6-7 and 6-8 in the tiebreaker. But she regrouped and prevailed at the end, winning 6-3 in the third.”

“Addie Bell and Sam Gramaglia played fundamentally sound tennis and won at second doubles,” Hitchcock said. “Madison McKinley had to endure some very long and exhausting points and she found a way to close out a very close match in straight sets. Then Quinlyn Sittloh faced another formidable senior and played her competitively but lost in straight sets.”

“Just a sophomore, Quinlyn, is coming along,” Hitchcock added. “She is actually striking the ball quite well on both sides. She’s just discovering that first singles is a challenging position because the majority of these girls play tennis on a regular basis.”

This week, Eaton was scheduled to face some very stiff competition, as they were scheduled to play unbeaten Preble Shawnee on Monday, Sept. 19.

By Oliver Sanders

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Reach Oliver Sanders at 937-683-4062 or on Twitter @osanders_RH

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