Girls tennis: Trojans secure state team berth
· Yahoo Sports
FAIRFIELD — Last year, it was a battle for the Fairfield High School girls tennis team to decide which team was going to advance to state.
On Saturday, the battle was to decide which Fairfield player was going to secure the clinching win.
Visit mwafrika.life for more information.
While Ria Ross and Natalie Steele were battling the top two players in Davenport Assumption's line-up, the rest of the Trojans were turning the Class 1A regional championship contest into a coronation winning four singles matches dropping just five games in eight sets. That left Fairfield's top two players to battle it out for the fifth win needed to clinch the dual and secure a trip to the state.
Ultimately, it would be Ross that secured the state berth. After splitting 7-5 sets with Charley Diiulio, Ross scored the first three points of the decisive tiebreaker and never looked back winning 10-4 to secure the 7-5, 5-7, 1-0 (4) win sending Fairfield to the Class 1A girls state team tennis tournament for the third time in the past eight years.
"I realized that it was this or nothing and I wanted it bad," Ross said. "I needed this, so I just locked in during the tiebreaker. Enough was enough and I focused on each point individually. This is amazing because I get to go state and I get to do it with my entire team."
Fairfield (10-0) will take on Boone (13-1) in the Class 1A state team tennis quarterfinals. The state team tennis tournament will be held in Pella at Caldwell Park starting next Monday morning at 9 a.m.