Franklin girls tennis ties for Mid-State title

<p>INDIANAPOLIS</p><p>The preferred conclusion for the Franklin girls tennis team would have been to win another Mid-State Conference tournament outright on Wednesday.</p><p>However, this spring turned out to be the season for sharing.</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs and Plainfield each racked up 47 points to tie for the top spot at Perry Meridian. Whiteland finished third with 32 points.</p><p>“You always want to win it, but Plainfield’s a great team, so we’re happy to be champs of Mid-State again. It’s a good thing for us,” Franklin coach Rusty Hughes said. “We have a good program heading toward next year, so we just want to keep it going.”</p><p>The Cubs were represented in all five championship matches — four against the Quakers. Franklin picked up titles from sophomore Emma Williams at No. 3 singles and from junior Haley Haldeman and freshman Emma Sappenfield at second doubles.</p><p>Williams lost the first set to Plainfield’s Ruby Woodson, 6-2, before returning the favor by the same score in the second. Williams then dominated play in the tiebreaker, 10-1.</p><p>“The first time I played her we went to a tiebreaker the first set, and I lost. And then she beat me, 6-3, in the second set,” Williams said. “Today, I just kept my feet moving and kept the ball in play. She hits hard and is an aggressive player.”</p><p>Haldeman and Sappenfield defeated Whiteland’s duo of Kaylee Hoagland and Brooke Boehnlein, 7-5, 6-0, in what was the lone all-Johnson County finale.</p><p>“The key was keeping our shots in and having them make mistakes,” Haldeman said. “At the beginning, we were making a lot of the mistakes and it was really hurting us. We were playing very tense because we knew that this is a very important match.”</p><p>Also for Franklin, No. 1 singles player Rylie Wilkison lost to Plainfield’s Jordyn Pax, 6-2, 6-1. The previously unbeaten top doubles tandem of sisters Haylie and Chelsie Rayl lost a third-set tiebreaker to the Quakers’ duo of Camille Clark and Emma Kessinger, 10-1.</p><p>Besides having the runner-up at No. 2 doubles, Whiteland featured senior Sarah Scott finishing third at No. 1 singles, and the Warriors’ top doubles team of Natalie Cloer and Molly Brosnan also had a third-place effort. Sara Ullrich was third at No. 3 singles after leading her opponent, 3-0, in the first set when the latter pulled out with an illness.</p><p>“You just never know about tournaments and how they’re going to play out, but I thought my girls played really, really well. I was very proud of them,” Whiteland coach Mike Gillespie said. “An example is Sara Ullrich played the Franklin girl in the semifinals.</p><p>“It was the third time they’ve played. The first two times it was fairly lopsided, but (Ullrich) really, really battled much better. That’s the kind of stuff I’m looking for.”</p><p>Greenwood’s Meri Yusef finished fourth at No. 2 singles, losing to Colleen Li of Perry Meridian, 6-4, 6-2. The Woodmen pairing of Ava Stein and Ashlee Walton forced a third-set tiebreaker in the consolation match at No. 2 doubles, but lost to Plainfield, 13-11.</p>