The Joplin High School girls tennis team competed as a group for the final time in 2021 on Monday night.
Fifth-seeded Raymore-Peculiar defeated fourth-seeded Joplin 5-2 in a quarterfinal matchup of the Class 3 District 6 team tournament at the JHS athletic complex.
Raymore-Peculiar advanced to meet top-seeded Lee’s Summit West on Tuesday, while Joplin’s team season concluded.
Joplin won the No. 1 doubles match, as Astrid Cardenas and Emma Watts defeated Chantelle Sheldon and Sarah Jenson 8-1.
“Astrid and Emma have been playing really good tennis, especially for the last two weeks particularly,” Joplin coach Jeff Williams said. “They played well again tonight. They led the way for sure.”
At No. 2 doubles, Ray-Pec’s Shannon Finn and Isabella de Leon edged Joplin’s Abry Stayton and Mya Ndedi-Ntepe 8-6.
The visitors also won at No. 3 doubles, as Gabriela Vides and Naomi Ropp defeated Cloey Blank and Brynn Driver 8-5.
“We had some close matches in doubles, but we weren’t able to come out on top in those,” Williams noted.
In singles action, Cardenas defeated Sheldon 6-3, 6-2.
In other completed singles matches, Raymore-Peculiar’s de Leon defeated Stayton 6-4, 6-3, Jenson beat Ndedi-Ntepe 6-2, 6-4 and Vides topped Blank 6-4, 6-2.
The dual ended as soon as Raymore-Peculiar reached five wins, so Watts and Driver did not complete their singles matches.
Williams noted his team’s seniors will be missed. He added the Eagles improved this fall.
“Cloey Blank played her final match tonight,” Williams said of the senior. “Of course Astrid is also a senior and she’ll play next week at state. But we’ve had good senior leadership this season. I think all of the girls got progressively better throughout the season and I think they had a good time, too. Overall, our team got better as the year progressed and that’s what you want to see.”
Although the team season is now over for the Eagles, Joplin’s doubles team of Cardenas and Watts will compete at next week’s individual state tournament in Springfield.
In another district quarterfinal, sixth-seeded Carthage suffered a season-ending 5-0 loss to third-seeded Lee’s Summit. Lee’s Summit advanced to play No. 2 Lee’s Summit North in the other semifinal.