Woodbury girls tennis: Royals’ season comes to an end at the hands of Stillwater

After falling 6-1 to Stillwater in the team portion of the Section 4AA tournament two weeks ago, the Woodbury girls tennis season came to an end last week at the Section 4AA individual tournament.

“While the tournament ended earlier for this team than we had hoped, it was a successful season from which our young team has much to be proud of and to build upon for next year,” Woodbury head coach Derek Otto said.

Woodbury sent six individuals to the tournament – two singles players and two doubles teams.

In the tournament, Woodbury eighth grader MacKenzie Schurhammer dominated her first round match, winning 6-1, 6-0 over Pajar Lee of St. Paul Harding, before running into the fourth-seeded Olivia Paradise in round No. 2. Paradise, of Mahtomedi, won 6-1, 6-0.

“Big Mac played well in her second round match, but Paradise was just too good,” Otto said. “(Paradise) has lost just one match this year, and showed no signs of slowing down through the first three rounds of this tournament.”

Woodbury ninth grader Brooke Hays had more of a battle on her hands in her first round match. In a rematch from last week’s team section match, Hays took on St. Paul Central’s Natalie Carlson, winning 6-4, 7-5.

Just like last time, it was a long two setter with a lot of very long points as two great competitors went back and forth outside in cold weather at Baseline Tennis Center. The second set seemed to be slipping away from Brooke but she came back and won it 7-5 from down 4-5 with a very strong finish.

“Carlson’s forehand is a weapon, she is very consistent and has a lot of speed with which to cover the court, so it was once again a great win for Brooke who battled past Carlson’s athleticism in addition to the cold and windy conditions,” Otto said.

In the second round, though, Hays ran into seventh seed, Haley Beath from Hill-Murray and fell 6-0, 6-1.

“It’s exciting to know that both Big Mac and Brooke will have several more shots in this tournament in the years ahead,” Otto said. “As they continue to work hard and improve, they’re no doubt going to see growing success here.”

In doubles play, fifth-seeded Katie Kreibich and Taylor Monkman swiftly defeated St. Paul Highland Park’s Zoey Alch and Rachel Frishberg in the first round, 6-0, 6-0. However, the unranked duo of Zoe Klass-Warch and Jada Konop Defreitas out of St. Paul Central defeated the Royals’ top pairing 4-6,7-6(2),6-2 in the second round.

“Zoe is among the top players in the section and was dominant, as expected,” Otto said. “Jada stepped up and played well after playing most of the year at third doubles for Central. We needed to play well to get past them, and while there were some good moments, we weren’t playing near our best and all the credit to the Central girls for taking advantage of that.”

In addition, Woodbury’s No. 2 doubles team of Yssa Yasis and Shanna Stevenson fell 6-2,6-2 to Katie Altman and Sarah Link of Hill-Murray in the opening round.

Woodbury must now say good-bye to three seniors from its roster – Yssa Yasis, Patricia Maglalang and Alexandra Hinze.

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