Local netters earn state medals

Four local tennis players — two from Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School and two from New Heights Christian Academy — earned medals at the MSHSAA Girls Tennis Championships last weekend during the Class 1 and 2 singles and doubles state tournament at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield.Thomas JeffersonTJ Cavaliers’ sophomore Sara Maksoud earned sixth-place honors at the Class 2 tournament and senior teammate Esther Yang was seventh.Maksoud, who finished runner-up in districts behind fellow Cavalier Yang, dropped her opener to Evelyn Tsai, Parkway Central, in a competitive 6-4, 6-3 match on Thursday, but recovered to defeat Belton’s Isabella Douglas 6-2, 6-2 in the consolation bracket.Maksoud then defeated Nerinx Hall’s Peyton Neidenbach 6-0, 6-2 on Thursday and St. Dominic’s Alison Bush in a gritty 7-5, 6-3 win on Friday. That win set up a rematch with Tsai in the fifth-place match on Friday. Tsai defeated Maksoud 6-2, 6-0 in the rematch.TJ’s Yang lost her opener 6-0, 6-1 on Thursday to eventual state runner-up Shree Nidhi Sikkal Kumar of Parkway West, but rebounded to defeat Barstow’s Anya Stanojevic’s 6-3, 6-4 in the consolation bracket on Thursday.The undefeated Cavaliers (11-0) open play in the Class 2 team tournament against the Platte County Pirates (15-2) at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Cooper Tennis Complex.Yang then defeated Sikeston’s Ruby Sullivan 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday, but on Friday fell to Tsai 6-0, 6-3. She won her final match against Bush 6-3, 6-3 to earn a seventh place medal on Friday.Maksud and Yang will join the rest of their teammates Thursday when they compete at the Class 2 team championships at the Cooper Tennis Complex.New HeightsThe New Heights Christian Academy Cougars’ doubles team of seniors Lillian Cummins and Anna Heitzel earned a fifth-place medal in the Class 1 doubles competition on Saturday.The New Heights duo lost a closely contested opening match 6-4, 3-6, 10-5 against Savannah’s Scarlet Jones and Lucy Bodenhausen, but rallied to beat Bishop DuBorg’s Sophia Winn and Eleanor Hromadka 6-3, 6-2 on Friday.On Saturday, Cummins and Heitzel outlasted Chillicothe’s Lexy Smith and Lydia Bonderer 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 and followed that with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Notre Dame de Sion’s Gabriela Perry and Liliana Gencarelli to advance to the fifth-place match.In the fifth-place match, Cummins and Heitzel defeated Lutheran South’s Lauren Blake and Lydia Gilbert 6-2, 6-4.New Heights junior Layla Masena forfeited all matches in her singles competition.