Varsity tennis players Athena Zeng, junior, and Ellie Lewis, sophomore, journeyed to Springfield last Thursday to compete at State. Seniors Lauren Milburn and Abby Randall, co-captains, accompanied the duo for support on their road to a third place finish.

“They’re really respectful on the court and really humble,” Milburn said. “It was awesome to see their sportsmanship and how far it took them.”

Milburn said varsity girls tennis went undefeated in the regular season. The Mustangs also hold the title of District champs, Conference champs and winners of the Parkway West doubles tournament.

“We have a great time supporting each other,” Milburn said.

Zeng and Lewis kicked off the weekend with a match against Notre Dame de Sion on Friday. They began with a solid lead ahead of their opponents, but towards the end of the first set, the girls from Notre Dame de Sion started to pick up speed. Zeng and Lewis pulled through with a 6-4 win at the end of their first set.

Shortly after the start of their second set, the score was at 5-2, Notre Dame de Sion.

“Though they were only one game away from forcing us to play another set, the momentum went back to us, and we won,” Zeng said.

Later that day, Zeng and Lewis went head to head against a doubles team from Nixa in the quarter finals. The match ended 6-0, 6-1 MHS. The dynamic duo, accompanied by their coaches, parents and a few teammates, celebrated with pasta and breadsticks at Olive Garden.

Saturday morning, a bitterly cold wind welcomed the girls to the court during the semifinals against another doubles team from Rockridge, the defending State champs.

Zeng said they really needed to focus because they lost to this team 8-6 during Sectionals. They went into the match with a positive attitude because they were really close to beating them the first time. Zeng and Lewis just needed a strong start.

“We were up the second set, and we thought we could get to the third set but the momentum went their way,” Zeng said.

The first match of semifinals ended 6-3, 7-5 Rockridge, Zeng said. She and Lewis knew it was crunch time.For the playoffs, Zeng and Lewis played another Rockridge doubles team and ended up winning 6-1, 6-3, ending third overall.

Zeng said she hopes to make it back to State next year for her senior year and hopefully pull out a first place finish.

“We were all pretty evenly matched,” Zeng said.

Lewis said the road to State was a great experience and they both have improved throughout the season.

“We’ve definitely progressed,” Lewis said.