[heading]Lee’s Summit wins state team title, Bruins finish as runner up [/heading] The strong desire of reaching state is something every sports team wishes to accomplish, but despite the  girls tennis team’s marathon of tennis Thursday, Oct. 24, the Bruins came away from state competition exhausted with the state runners-up trophy to show.
The Bruins clinched a spot in the state championship match with a win in the morning semi-final versus St. Joseph’s Academy.
After wins by sophomore Hannah Pohl, junior Phoebe Boeschen and sophomore Tess Lovig, the Bruins entered the three doubles contests 3-3 against St. Joseph’s Academy. With wins by the Bruin duos of Pohl and sophomore Ronni Farid, as well as senior Allison Baker and Lovig,  the Bruins advanced to the State Championship match.
The team had just more than an hour before they took on Lee’s Summit North in the championship match at 2:45 p.m.
“It was a tough match. The recovery time was short but that’s just another obstacle for us to overcome,” Boeschen said. “I’m really happy with the way we played in the first match. We gave it everything we had.”

The match against Lee’s Summit was another match in which the doubles matches ultimately decided the outcome.

Baker and Pohl were able to best their opponents  in the singles competition to head into the three doubles matches, with the Bruins down four games to two. The Bruins needed to win all of these matches to win State.

Despite a valiant effort by the RBHS doubles teams, the girls fell at doubles on the first court and dropping the match to the Broncos, their opponents, 5-2.

All in all, the team played for almost eight hours and definitely felt the fatigue during their matches.

“It’s just kinda something that comes with making it to the Final Four,” senior Sophi Farid said.  “We expected two tough matches, and we played with everything we had.”
By Pen Terry