By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
MADISON – The No. 8-seeded Ashwaubenon girls’ tennis team dropped a 6-1 decision to top-seeded Homestead (Mequon) in a WIAA Division 1 quarterfinal match at the Nielsen Tennis Facility on the UW-Madison campus Oct. 26.
The Highlanders went on to win the state championship, defeating Muskego 4-3 in the finale.
Homestead has won nine of the past 12 state team titles.
“We had a tough draw coming in,” said Ashwaubenon assistant coach Raelynn Wingert. “We competed hard at every flight. We got off to some slow starts with our nerves, but we hung with the best team in the state for a majority of the second sets. We were only a couple of games away in half of the flights to force third sets.”
The lone win for Ashwaubenon came at No. 3 singles, where Melanie Lamon came out victorious.
Lamon quickly dropped the opening set, losing six of the first seven games.
The second set saw an increase in winners and a decrease in unforced errors for Lamon.
She flipped the script to take the second set and force a third.
Up 5-4 in the final set, Lamon closed out her opponent with an overhead at 40-30 to garner the win.
Homestead won the other six matches in straight sets.
It was the first time in school history the Jaguars competed at team state.
They finished the season at 22-2.
“I’m proud of the accomplishments these girls were able to attain this season,” added Wingert. “We got over 20 dual wins, won the subsectional and sectional, got everybody on the all-conference team and achieved the ultimate pinnacle of our sport by finishing as one of the top eight teams in the state to end the season.”
WIAA state quarterfinal results: Homestead 6, Ashwaubenon 1
Singles – No. 1: Natalie Yang (Hom) def. Marisa Marohl (Ash), 6-3, 6-4; No. 2: Jamie Gebhardt (Hom) def. Natasha Schiegg (Ash), 6-1, 6-4; No. 3: Melanie Lamon (Ash) def. Anna Head (Hom), 1-6, 6-3, 6-4; No. 4: Tess LaLonde (Hom) def. Puja Patel (Ash) 6-1, 6-4.
Doubles – No. 1: Sasha Shapsis/Kate Wade (Hom) def. Maddy Coopmans/Kennedy Conradt (Ash), 6-0, 6-0; No. 2: Ellie Sprinkmann/Bridget Brown (Hom) def. Courtney Behnke/Delaney Christensen (Ash), 6-1, 6-2; No. 3: Ashley Chavin/Jillian Diamond (Hom) def. Caitlyn Phillips/ Karleigh Conradt (Ash), 6-3, 6-3.