FORTVILLE — For the sixth year in a row, the Mt. Vernon Marauders are Hancock County girls tennis champions.
The county tournament hosts won four of the five championship-round matches Monday night, easily outdistancing their county rivals to take home another title with 31 points. New Palestine finished second, with 18 points. Greenfield-Central was third with eight, and Eastern Hancock finished fourth with three points.
“I can’t say enough about our girls tonight. This is a very important tournament to us,” Mt. Vernon coach Gabe Muterspaugh said. “This is it, and the sectional. It’s the Hancock County tournament, and we want the Marauders to rule it every single year. This was huge for us.”
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It was the newest Marauder who set the tone early for the hosts, who got championship wins at all three singles positions and at No. 2 doubles.
Louisa Batge, an exchange student from Germany playing at No. 3 singles, picked up the first point of the night for the Marauders, completing a big comeback win in the championship round to top New Palestine’s Caylie Almond, 3-6, 6-1, 10-5.
“It felt really good, my comeback. I didn’t really think it would happen, but I was really proud of myself when it happened,” Batge said. “The tiebreaker, my nerves were really stressed out. But I did it, and I think it was very important because I was the first one to finish, so the other ones could see it was OK, and they could win, too.
“Honestly, it was more important for me to get the points for the team than to win for myself. I just want to help them out, but they did great, too. It felt good to be county champs with them.”
Also winning at the singles spots were Lydia Ruegsegger at No. 1 and Kaleigh Helm at No. 2, both repeating as county champions at a position higher, respectively, from a year ago.
Ruegsegger topped New Palestine’s Megan Long in the championship match, 6-0, 6-2. Helm bested Eastern Hancock’s Cassandra Hannemann 6-4, 6-1 in the No. 2 title match.
“It’s wonderful, because it’s a completely different team from last year. All different spots, and they all stepped up,” Muterspaugh said. “I can’t say enough about Louisa, who set the tone early with her big comeback win. That was huge for us to get that win. Louisa has been here all year, but she’s from Germany, and you never know how somebody is going to step up in that tournament situation. Lydia rolled like we knew Lydia would hopefully roll. She does what she does. Kaleigh Helm was huge tonight.”
At the doubles spots, New Palestine’s Claire Cherry and Josee King picked up a 7-5, 6-3 win against Mt. Vernon’s Alexis Lane and Maeve Laughlin.
The Marauders took the other doubles spot, with Lexi Shelton and Maddie Swingle topping the defending county champs, New Palestine’s Sheridan Schrowe and Ashley Truman, 6-1, 6-4.
“Two athletes, two basketball girls that just know how to win, refuse to lose,” Muterspaugh said of the No. 2 doubles team. “That’s kind of been our mantra forever. Let’s go, go go.”
In the consolation matches, Greenfield-Central’s Avery Spencer picked up a third-place finish at No. 1 singles, topping Eastern Hancock’s Chelsi McMahan, 6-1, 6-3. New Palestine’s Nicole Wernimont took third against Grace Hall of Greenfield-Central with a 6-4, 6-3 win. The Cougars’ Nae Pattakul picked up a third-place finish at No. 3 singles, beating the Royals’ Valentina Brooks, 7-5, 6-2.
Greenfield-Central took third place at both doubles positions, with Erin Wright and Alyson Proper winning 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 against Chloe McCarty and Bella Witte of Eastern Hancock. At No. 2 doubles, Kaleigh Stephenson and Grace Silcox bested Eastern Hancock’s Madison Hagan and Corina Jennings, 6-1, 7-5.
It was the second straight year that New Palestine finished with 18 points, the Cougars were third and the Royals fourth.
Second place was no consolation for the Dragons, who look to improve before sectional time.
“They dominate girls tennis like we dominate boys tennis,” New Palestine coach Jean Graham said. “It’s kind of weird how that works out. Our girls were a point here, a point there. We’re going to make some adjustments and we’ll come back stronger.”