By Cort Reynolds
The Bluffton High School girls tennis team competed in the Div. II sectional tournament at UNOH in Lima Saturday, October 8.
Pirate junior Brooke Camper was seeded 17th in the 36-player singles field, and she won two matches before being eliminated one win short of district qualification.
Singles and doubles semifinalists make it to the district tournament, and she lost in the quarterfinals.
Camper easily defeated Emma Skinner of LCC 6-1, 6-0 in her round of 32 opener.
In the round of 16, Camper then beat Maggie Schmiedebusch of Ottawa-Glandorf 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
But in the quarterfinals, Camper lost a tough match to fourth seed Ava Patel of Shawnee 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) to be eliminated from the tournament.
Patel eventually finished third and lost to eventual champion teammate Alora Patel.
Pirate Hannah Nieman, seeded 32nd, played Alexa Rittner of Defiance in the round of 32. Nieman lost 6-3, 7-5.
Bluffton's Ava McCamey met Shawnee's Rose Kottapalli in the play-in round. McCamey lost 6-0, 6-0 to the eventual fourth-place finisher, who lost to Patel in the third-place match.
Shawnee took first, third and fourth in the singles tournament.
Bluffton's tandem of Caitlyn Couch and Leah Klinger lost a very close three-setter in the doubles flight. After a first round bye, they played McKenna Bader and Marie Pignataro of LCC in the round of 16.
The Pirate duo won the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker (7-4). The Thunderbirds came back to win set two 7-6 in another tiebreaker (7-3). The LCC tandem then won the third set, 6-3.
The Pirate duo of Brooklyn Moser and Kaleigh Coffman won their round of 32 match over Rose Swift and Catrina Hohenberger of Defiance Ayersville 6-1, 6-1.
In the round of 16, the Pirate pair lost 6-0, 6-0 to the third-seeded LCC duo of Paige Brinkman and Claire Janowski. Brinkman and Janowski ultimately finished third.
The LCC tandem made it to the finals before falling in the championship match to top seeds Elena Oliver and Anne Oliver of Bath.
