BELLEVILLE – The Edwardsville girls’ tennis team advanced Chloe Trimpe in singles and both doubles teams of Natalie Karibian and Abby Cimarolli along with Hannah Colbert and Annie McGinnis as the Tigers finished second in the IHSA Class 2A girls tennis sectional played Saturday at Belleville East. Alton’s Hannah Macias advanced in singles with a fourth-place finish.
The host Lancers won the tournament with 26 points, two better than the Tigers, who had 24. Belleville West and O’Fallon tied for third with 14 points each, Alton was fifth with 12, Springfield High wound up sixth with eight points, and Collinsville was seventh with four. Quincy and Granite City both did not score.
The Lancers’ Chloe McIssac and JoJo Skaer finished in the top two spots of the singles, followed by Trimpe in third and the Redbirds’ Macias, all advancing to the state meet next weekend. In the doubles, Karibian and Cimarolli finished in first over Kaitlyn Fiedler and Taylor Fiedler of Belleville West, with Colbert and McGinnis coming in third and Kate Macaluso and Emiley Fritz of O’Fallon finishing fourth, with all teams also qualifying for State.
Trimpe won her first round match over Emma Batterman of Springfield 6-0, 6-0 and her quarterfinal over Jennaka Cain of Collinsville 6-4, 6-0. She then lost to McIssac in the semifinals 6-0, 6-0 but rebounded to defeat Macias in the third place match 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Macias defeated Isabella Trinh of Quincy in the first round 6-0, 6-1 and also won her quarterfinal match over Maya Hoffman of Springfield 6-2, 6-2 before losing in the semifinal to Skaer 6-2, 6-2,
Karibian and Cimarolli won their first round match over Belleville West’s Grace Bauer and Natalie Soehnlin 6-1. 6-2, then won their quarterfinal over Anushka Noriewala and Sina Leuthhaeuser of Springfield 6-0, 6-1. In the semifinals, the team defeated Macaluso and Fritz 6-2, 6-2 and won the final over the Fiedlers 6-3, 6-0.
Colbert and McGinnis began their tournament with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Rebecca Loftus and Jaedyn Black of Granite City, then won their quarterfinal match over Kaylyn DelVecchio and McIssac 6-2, 6-2. The duo lost the semifinal match to the Fiedler sisters 6-2, 6-4 before rebounding in the third place match, winning over Macaluso and Fritz 6-3, 6-3.
In the Class 1A Sectional at Triad, Marquette Catholic’s Maria Wendle qualified for the State tournament in singles, defeating Hannah Butkovich of Civic Memorial and Holli Roberts of Jersey to advance. Katie Ventimiglia won her first round match as well over Shoppii of East Alton-Wood River, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Royer of Belleville Althoff Catholic. Play was suspended due to inclement weather on Saturday, and will be resumed on Monday.
All the state qualifiers will compete in the IHSA State tournament, to be held Thursday through Saturday at Buffalo Grove High School in suburban Chicago.
Steven Spencer also contributed to this story.
