For the second straight season, the Thomas Jefferson Cavaliers are district champions.
Top-seeded Thomas Jefferson earned a 5-1 win over third-seeded College Heights Christian on Wednesday in the championship match of the Class 1 District 12 girls tennis tournament at the TJ courts.
“Anytime you win a district title you feel good,” Thomas Jefferson coach Tom Brumfield said. “We tried to win districts for a long time, and we finally won one last year. It’s nice to go back to back. I’m just very proud of them.”
With the win, the Cavaliers (12-1) advanced to the sectional round of the state tournament, where they’ll meet District 10 champion Bolivar on Oct. 11.
The Cavaliers won two of the three doubles matches to start the dual off on a positive note.
Thomas Jefferson’s Allison Ding and Jeanna Jeyaraj defeated Hannah Bass and Avery Baker 8-1 at No. 1 doubles, while Kyla Yang and Emalee Ro beat Ella Bishop and Jeanna Smathers 8-4 at No. 2 doubles.
At No. 3 doubles, College Heights’ Jem Kionisala and Isabelle Clevenger defeated Jessica Joseph and Warda Morsy 8-5.
“We preach the importance of doubles all the time,” Brumfield said. “Coming back from being down 1-2 really puts a lot of pressure on a team.”
The dual ended when the Cavaliers won three singles matches.
Jeyaraj defeated Bass 6-1, 4-6, 10-7, while Yang topped Bishop 6-3, 6-1 and Ro beat Kayla Wicke 6-4, 6-2.
Brumfield noted he’s been extremely pleased with his team’s progress this fall, especially with such a young squad.
Jeyaraj, Yang and Morsy are freshmen, while Ding and Ro are sophomores. Joseph is a junior.
“We’ve got a really young team and five of them had no varsity experience before this season, and three of them are freshmen,” Brumfield added. “I’m very proud. My expectations were not that we’d go 12-1. That’s surprising. They’ve put in the work, got better and stayed after it. It can be easy for young athletes to get down or frustrated if things don’t always go their way, but ours didn’t. They just stayed with it.”
CHC seniors Kionisala, Bass and Baker played their final match for the Cougars.
The Cavaliers will have singles players Ding and Jeyaraj competing at the individual sectional on Friday.
Ding is now 21-1 in singles matches.
“She’s done a really good job,” Brumfield noted. “And Jeanna has done a good job as our No. 2.”
Friday’s action begins at 4 at the TJ courts.
