The Mt. Vernon girls tennis team, shown here after winning the Hoosier Heritage Conference traveling trophy at Delta last week, added another Hancock County Tourament title to its list of accomplishments Friday night.
Submitted photo
FORTVILLE — Mt. Vernon had won 12 straight Hancock County girls tennis tournament championships until finishing second to New Palestine last year.
It didn’t take long for the Marauders to regain the crown, and they did it in dominating fashion.
For just the fourth time, Mt. Vernon swept all five flights and won convincingly with the maximum 35 team points in Friday’s tournament at Mt. Vernon High School.
New Palestine was second with 14 points. The Dragons had four runner-up finishes. Eastern Hancock was third with 9 points, including one second-place finish. Greenfield-Central was fourth with two points.
Caroline Allen, Ginni Morelli and Maria Downs swept through No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively.
Kylie Brandes and Ava Lusby won the No. 1 doubles title and Addison Lockwood and Sophie Maxwell won at No. 2 doubles.
All titles were won in straight sets. Along with going 20-0 in sets, Mt. Vernon players won 60 of 64 first-round games and went 61-24 in games in the championship round.
In the No. 3 singles final, New Palestine Maizy Haynes gave Downs a battle before the MV senior was able to pull away a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
Brandes and Lusby lost just three total games. Morelli only lost four and Allen lost five.
Along with Haynes at No. 3 singles, New Palestine had runner-up finishes from No. 2 singles player Bethany Blachly, the No. 1 doubles team of Josephine Harvey and Emily Appleby and the No. 2 team of Amelia Schneider and Riley Watts.
Eastern Hancock got a second-place finish from No. 1 singles player Lexi Swauger.
MV beats G-C
Prior to the county tournament on Thursday, Mt. Vernon put its Hoosier Heritage Conference traveling trophy on the line for the first time since winning it Monday at Delta.
The Marauders won 5-0 at Greenfield-Central.
Morelli and Downs both won 6-0, 6-0. Allen was victorious 6-0, 6-1. In doubles action, Brandes/Lusby won 6-1, 6-0 and Lockwood/Maxwell won 6-1, 6-1.
Dragons win
In another HHC matchup Thursday, New Palestine defeated Yorktown 5-0.
All five victories came in straight sets.
Kaitlyn Mitchell won at No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-3. Blachly won at No. 2 6-4, 6-2 and Haynes won 6-0, 6-1.
In doubles play, Appleby/Harvey won 6-0, 6-3 and Schneider/Watts won 6-1, 7-5.
