Earlier this week, the Lady Tigers tennis team made history by completing Republic’s first-ever undefeated season in the Central Ozark Conference Large Division. Today, they topped it off with a COC Tournament championship.
Republic edged out rival Ozark by the narrowest of margins, winning the championship by one point. It’s the first-ever COC Tournament title in girls tennis for Republic.
The Lady Tigers took a one-point lead at the conclusion of singles competition, then hung on in doubles to win the championship.
Editor’s note: more details submitted by Dan Vales:
By the late afternoon, after calculating team tallies in the tournament, the COC championship came down to one match for Republic. Just before, the #1 doubles tandem of Snyder/Pearce easily won the #1 doubles championship over Nixa, finishing an undefeated day of tennis for the pair in singles and doubles. Also, in #3 doubles, Clark/Womack dispatched Nixa 6-0 to clinch third place in doubles and avenged a loss to Nixa in the regular season.
All that was left between an outright COC championship for Republic was a 6-no ad match for third place at #2 doubles. Thornhill/Georges had to shake off a heartbreaking tight loss in the semis against Nixa and focus on the task at hand. Republic got off to a somewhat shaky start in the 3rd place match, going down 4-3 to Neosho, a team playing with nothing to lose. Republic re-grouped to win the next game to make it 4-4. The next two games went to deuce, with both times Republic stepping up in the clutch to win the deciding point of each game, and clinched the outright team championship. After winning the final point, Thornhill and Georges were mobbed by their teammates, as they knew Republic had just topped Ozark to take home the title.
Here’s how the individual team members fared:
Kaitlyn Snyder (Flight I Singles Champion, Flight I Doubles Champion)
Kaytlin Pearce (Flight II Single Champion, Flight I Doubles Champion)
Makenzie Clark (Flight III Doubles – 3rd Place)
Macie Thornhill (Flight IV Singles – 3rd Place, Flight II Doubles – 3rd Place)
Heather Georges (Flight V Singles Champion, Flight II Doubles – 3rd Place)
Molly Womack (Flight VI Singles Champion, Flight III Doubles – 3rd Place)
Photos courtesy Mike Pearce and Dan Vales