Maharishi advances to regional tennis final, Mt. Pleasant and Fairfield come up short

FAIRFIELD — It was an eventful scorching day full of tennis Saturday in Fairfield for Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield and Maharishi.

Eight teams, four at Fairfield Middle School and four at Maharishi’s Punj Tennis Center, to play for a trip to the regional finals and one step closer to state.

By the end of the day, it was just the Pioneers of Maharishi that were still in contention.

The Pioneers drew Burlington Notre Dame as their opening round opponent.

Maharishi had no problem with the Nikes, winning the competition 5-0.

Lily Fenton, Ishita Mukadam and Vaisnavii Mohanraj all won each of their two sets 6-1 in the opening round.

The win slotted them against Davis County, who previously downed Fort Madison in round one.

“We respect them so much because they’re all great athletes,” Maharishi head coach Lawrence Eyre said. “We knew that if we didn’t open with high energy first set that we could be looking at a hard time, because they get better as the match goes on.”

Against Davis County, the Pioneers once against showed their dominance. They never dropped a set sweeping the singles matches for the second time in the contest.

Fenton won 6-1 and 6-3 in her two sets. Mukadam was a winner 6-1 an 6-0. Mohanraj defeated the opposition 6-1 and 6-3. Isabella Castle was victorious 6-2, 6-3. Saraswati Quevedo-Valls won 7-5, 5-2 and Daira Valls Blazquez came away with a 6-0 and 7-5 victory.

“I think we really played well today,” Fenton said. “We were really focused coming into this match because we knew that Davis County would be a tough opponent. We just wanted to play our best today.”

Eyre says that it’s been great to see the girls improve their game as the season has progressed and he’s happy that they’ve embraced it.

“These girls have improved steadily over the season,” Eyre said. “The girls didn’t waver in that. They grumbled sometimes because I’m always trying to push them to a high level. They stuck with it.”

The Pioneers will play Assumption on Tuesday at Fairfield Middle School for the Regional Championship.

Mt. Pleasant had a tough outing in their first round of play. The Panthers went up against Davenport Assumption.

In 10 total sets the Panthers won just six, with five coming from senior Savana Walls.

Walls was bested in her two sets 6-1 and 6-4. Melanie Olivas, Malena Yocum, and Ale Carrillo each fell 6-0 in their two sets. Eliana Situmeang was defeated 6-1 and 6-0.

Mt. Pleasant ends its season at 2-9.

“Coming into this season, we had at best one year of experience,” Mt. Pleasant head coach Martha Peterson said. “I’m incredibly proud of this team. There was such improvement across the whole season.”

Fairfield saw a familiar foe in its opening match. The Trojans took on Keokuk.

The two battled in each of their meeting during the regular season and on Friday it was much of the same.

After six hard fought matches in singles, the Trojans found themselves down 4-2 heading into the doubles.

To advance, Fairfield needed a sweep.

Fairfield’s Tess Paton and Madison Greiner started the Trojans off on the right foot. The duo gave Fairfield one of the three wins they needed after a 2-0 set victory, making it a 4-3 game.

Maybe it wasn’t meant to be, as Keokuk was able to seal their victory with a win over Sydney Wells and Giteeka Adhikari.

The Trojans end their team season with a 2-9 overall record.

“They’ve improved over the season,” Fairfield head coach Heidi Grunwald said. “Obviously we’ve got some work to do and hopefully they get out and play this summer. The more you play the better off your going to be. If you look at our record it wasn’t a great great season, but they played well.”

While the teams season is now complete, Paton will still be in action. The senior will represent the Trojans at individual state.