Republic beat Nixa 6-3 in September after winning two of the three doubles matches. When the teams met again Wednesday for the Class 3 District 5 championship, Nixa turned that around early, and Republic spent the rest of the afternoon trying to catch up.
The Lady Tigers got all the way back to 4-4 before Nixa won the last match in a third-set tiebreaker, taking the district title 5-4 and ending Republic’s season.
Nixa won at #1 doubles over Claire Norris and Abby Bremer and at #2 over Elaina Antonuk and Marlee Vasquez. Aubree Tinsley and Leighton Riffe won at #3 to keep Republic within 2-1.
“They just played really well right out of the gate in doubles, especially one and two,” coach Dan Vales said. “They were super strong and so they earned those matches, but our kids didn’t give up.”
Nixa kept it going in singles, winning quickly at #1 against Norris and at #4 against Vasquez, who had won her match against Nixa in September. That put Nixa up 4-2 with three matches still being played, and Republic needed all three.
Vales said at one point it looked like it might end 5-1 or 5-2. Instead, Riffe won quickly at #6 singles to make it 4-3, a month after she lost 9-7 to Nixa at #6. Bremer followed by closing out a long match at #3, finishing it with a game that went to deuce several times, and the score was tied 4-4.
Game page →“We came back and won Aubree’s match, won Leighton’s match, won Abby’s match,” Vales said. “So we got back to 4-4. And it was anybody’s game at that point in that tiebreaker.”
The last match was at #2 singles, where Antonuk, a freshman, had come back from a set down against a Nixa senior to force a tiebreaker. Like the rest of the day, it went back and forth. It was tied 7-7 when Bremer finished it out, winning 10-8.
“Elaina played amazing tennis and we’re all super proud of her and she did everything she could to try to win,” Vales said.
Nixa also beat Republic in last year’s district final. Vales said this year’s team is one he’ll miss.
“That’s just a great group of kids,” he said.
The Lady Tigers finish the season 16-2, and their 16 wins tie the program record for a season.
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