Kapaun’s Abby Stevens did a few things Saturday that she doesn’t do often. The first was her loss in the first set of a match, the championship match of all matches.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ Natalie Looney came out firing. She was pumped up and ready to win a state championship. It seemed that she knew what shots to hit and how to get in the head of Stevens.
There were a few tense moments in the first set. Stevens made some calls that Looney felt were flat-out incorrect. Looney let Stevens know her feelings and eventually asked for a line judge.
This seemed to make Stevens nervous as she hesitated every time she needed to make a call. Whatever it was the Looney was trying to do, she succeeded which led to a 6-4 set win for Looney.
“I’m just putting too much pressure on myself,” said a visibly Stevens to her coach Kathy Schulte after a game loss in the first set.
Although Stevens lost the set, she won the last two games and felt good going into the second set. What else Stevens accomplished Saturday was win a state championship.
“I let my emotions get in the way,” she said of the first set. “I was letting my emotions control me. My coach settled me down and helped me out. The next two sets I kept my emotions in check a lot better.”
Stevens kept her emotions in check to the tune of two straight set wins and a state championship. She won by a score of 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.
The last two sets were all Stevens. She put the ball where and when she wanted to and simply out-played Looney.
“After the second set we took a break and I was ready to get back out there and win state,” said Stevens. “During the third set I just had all my confidence and realized that I don’t have to be emotional.”
Kapaun’s Baldwin/Pringle take down top-seed Feldkamp/Lauer of Carroll
The duo of Rachael Baldwin and Elizabeth Pringle were up 40-15 in the final set. The two were staring at a championship point and the way they were playing, a state championship.
So naturally, they celebrated a little. Baldwin and Pringle shared a hug that was interrupted by a Carroll player that said, “You know that wasn’t game point, right?”
It certainly was not. Anne Feldkamp and Paige Lauer of Carroll would go on to win the game to bring the set to 5-4.
However, Baldwin and Pringle won the next game to win the state championship 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
After the first set, it appeared as if Kapaun would cruise to lock up the team title for the Lady Crusaders, but Feldkamp and Lauer had other ideas. The Carroll duo hit drop shots, lob shots and split the Kapaun pair in half with others in the second set.
“We were down a little bit after the second set,” said Baldwin. “When we were down 0-3, we decided we wanted to win.”
“We tried to focus on positives, the things we were doing well,” said Pringle. “We tried to not focus on the negatives from our other sets.”
The entire match was back-and-forth. The two fan bases shared bleachers, half Kapaun fans and half Carroll. It seemed that with each point, one half was cheering and the other sat silently.
“This year has been crazy for us,” said Baldwin. “I’m so excited, still shocked.”
Kapaun took the team championship with 48 points. Carroll took second with 36.5 and St. Thomas Aquinas third with 32.
For complete results of the 5A girls' tennis state championship, click here.
