Mexico girls tennis at best, secures all-district honors for all six players

Mexico girls tennis hadn’t seen every possible opponent before individual districts on Saturday.

Mexico Girls Tennis All-District Photo Gallery

This didn’t prevent the Lady Bulldogs from being at their best as they secured half of the eight all-district spots at the Fairgrounds Park Netplex in Mexico. All six Mexico girls that competed were all-district at the end of the day as Katie Gooch finished first in singles, Jyllian Whitworth was first in singles, Lucy Gleeson and Alice Eggen were third place in doubles, and Lani Blair and Claire Hudson finished fourth place in doubles.

“It was a very exciting day and we had several intense matches,” head coach Kim Costley said. “We played some of our best tennis of the year.”

The Lady Bulldogs hadn’t faced Lutheran St. Charles (9-3) yet this season but saw them on Monday at team districts in St. Louis. Gooch defeated two opponents from the school, including her first-place 7-5, 6-1 victory against Emma Wichmann, to qualify for individual sectionals on Saturday. Blair and Hudson earned all-districts after a grueling three-set tiebreaker win against Lutheran St. Charles pair Talya Williams/Lucy Quagliata, winning 6-4, 5-7 and 7-6 (10-7).

Gleeson and Eggen upset Palmyra pair Kenzie Bollin/Natalie Bart 6-1, 6-2 in the first round and ended their day with an 8-4 win against Blair and Hudson for third place. Whitworth lost to Wichmann in her second match but defeated Fulton’s Gwenn Austin 6-0, 6-1 and then Marwa Sherzad 9-7 in the third-place match.

Lady Bulldog tennis team season ends with district loss to Lutheran St. Charles

Mexico was able to snag some wins against Lutheran St. Charles two days prior in individual districts but couldn’t win on Monday.

In the Class 1 District 7 team tournament, the Lady Bulldogs lost 5-0 to Lutheran St. Charles in St. Louis, bringing their final record to 12-9. Katie Gooch’s season continues at 10 a.m. today at Fairgrounds Park Netplex in Mexico in sectionals after earning first team all-district on Saturday.

“We battled with them for a long time, just couldn't close out and get some wins,” head coach Kim Costley said. “I’m proud of this team and what all they have accomplished this year. We will continue to build and work. This group set the bar high. They have invested time in the offseason to be ready to compete and their results reflect their hard work and willingness to learn. I can't say enough about the positive leadership these seniors have provided this year.”

Gooch defeated two Lutheran St. Charles girls but was involved in one of three doubles losses. She and Jyllian Whitworth were defeated 8-3, Alice Eggen and Lucy Gleeson lost 8-5 and Lani Blair and Daida Herrera-Garcia lost 9-7. 

Four singles matches remained unfinished, including Gooch’s 7-5, 1-2 contest, Whitworth’s 3-6, 5-3 match and Gleeson’s 6-3, 0-2 match. Lutheran St. Charles secured victory after winning 6-2, 6-2 against Blair and 6-1, 6-4 against Herrera-Garcia.

Teel runs past steals record, Thurman walks off in Mexico’s 12-10 win vs Palmyra

Before Jo Thurman sent Mexico home happy with some power, Brooke Teel flashed some speed.

Thurman hit a three-RBI walk-off home run on Saturday in Ashland to defeat Palmyra 12-10, finishing the game by going 3-for-4. Prior to her game-winning swing in the seventh inning, Teel had some record-breaking quickness as she stole her third and fourth bases of the game to tie and then set the school’s new single-season stolen base record at 28, breaking the previous record of 27.

The Lady Bulldogs’ future college softball players led the way in the bounce-back victory after a 4-2 loss to Class 3 No. 9 Southern Boone (13-19-1) earlier in the day. Central Methodist Teel finished 3-for-4 with three runs, and her fellow future Eagle Karlee Sefrit went 3-for-4 with three RBI. In her two games during the day, the University of Missouri recruit Thurman went 3-for-6 with three runs, two walks and a double.

In the fourth inning, Kenley Jones crushed a solo home run for her first career home run, making it 5-4 Palmyra (6-11) at the time and giving her a 2-for-3 game at the plate with a triple. The Lady Bulldogs (15-10) eventually tied the game for the second time after initially knotting the score at 3 on Jones’ triple in the first inning. Jones and then Landri Teel drew bases-loaded walks to tie the game at 8 in the sixth inning.

Sefrit and Aleigha Henderson each had a RBI in the loss to Southern Boone. Hailey Platt finished with 13 strikeouts, five hits, four walks and two runs in seven innings for the Lady Eagles, and Keerstan Ewing had four innings with six hits, one earned run and one strikeout for the Lady Bulldogs.

Mexico (7-1 NCMC) wraps up its regular season and has a chance at a North Central Missouri Conference title this week at 5 p.m. Wednesday against Hannibal (2-13, 0-7 NCMC) and 5 p.m. Thursday at Class 3 No. 4 Fulton (18-6-1, 7-1 NCMC).

Bulldogs win 11th straight 54 Bowl, runs around Fulton 28-27

Mexico had multiple players with the hot hand on Friday.

The Bulldogs defeated North Central Missouri Conference rival Fulton 28-27 on the road in their 11th straight 54 Bowl victory, which also evened up the all-time series at 63-63-6. Mexico (2-4, 2-1 NCMC) resembled the Mexico of previous seasons as it finished with 323 rushing yards, splitting the majority of the contributions with Hunter Cuno and PJ Perkins.

Perkins scored three touchdowns and ran for 124 yards on 16 carries while Cuno ate up 119 yards on 22 carries, scoring the game-winning touchdown. Head coach Steve Haag said Cuno capped a 12-play drive with a dive play and then the Bulldogs went for the lead instead of the tie, still down 27-26. They went to their other hot hand Perkins on a sweep play for the successful two-point conversion.

“Hunter is probably more of a fullback than he is a tailback or wingback, so this week, we worked him there,” Haag said. “He has good balance, and he’s tough. In this offense, it’s who has the hot hand. He had the hot hand. PJ benefitted because we thought running to our left was better and thought their defense was weaker on that side.”

Haag said Mexico only had one three-and-out on offense so the Bulldogs were able to run what they wanted on that side of the ball.

The problem was Malik Douglas was able to run through Mexico’s defense for a majority of the night as he finished with 237 yards and four touchdowns on 19 carries. However, Haag said Mexico did stop Fulton (0-6, 0-3 NCMC) by being more aggressive before being able to run the clock out.

“The guys finally came up and were in the right positions,” Haag said. “I thought we sat back a little bit. He’s quick back and is strong, so if they sit back, that’s really not good. We were able to come up and set an edge on him. They had to go to a different play so they ran an option and fumbled it and lost a bunch of yards.”

Mexico plays at conference foe Kirksville (2-4, 1-2 NCMC) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Centralia strong up front, on serve in sweep of Mexico

Mexico went long stretches without serving the ball on Monday against Centralia.

Mexico vs Centralia Photo Gallery

The Lady Bulldogs ultimately lost in three sets at home to district foe Centralia 25-11, 25-11 and 25-14. The Lady Panthers made a statement in the first set by going on a 17-1 run to close it out and used their girls at the net to compliment some hot serving.

After dropping the first set, Mexico (3-16-1) tried to regroup in the second set, only to lose pace with Centralia (12-4) again after a 12-0 run. Addison Mabrey blocked on the first point of the run while Ryenn Gordon kept serving. Mexico head coach RaShonda Willis said Centralia’s tall girls up front threw off Mexico all night and showed the rebuilding Lady Bulldogs are still a work in progress.

“The main thing on my mind (when facing Centralia) is not hitting to the blockers,” Willis said. “They have to go around the blockers. They know we’re going to swing so then we have to play smart and not harder. We have to learn how to place the ball. We’ve been practicing, we’re rebuilding and we’re getting it one practice at a time.”

Willis said Centralia had two blockers going at Mexico’s attackers often, and the Lady Bulldogs have been struggling with that at other times this season. Mabrey had four solo blocks and an assisted block she shared with Raegan Anderson, and Morgan added two solo blocks and a block assist.

Centralia head coach Julie Crum said the taller front court has definitely been an asset this season to the team. The upperclassmen Mabrey and Ross had solid nights, and sophomore Madilynn Hunter once again led the way on the attack with 11 kills. Lexi Cook was at the center of most of the action with 28 assists.

“Blocking is definitely really coming on for a lot of us,” Crum said. “Addison’s timing is one of those things as she’s really good with her hands, and if we got a tie ball, she’s really good at tipping and placing the ball in a nice and tricky place for us. That’s your first line of defense against an attack. It’s good to have tall girls that are fast on their feet and big with their hands.”

Crum said the Lady Panthers did have many missed serves, which is an area she wants them to excel at, but Gordon had the hot hand on Monday. The freshman Gordon has actually had a hot serving hand since Centralia took second place in the Hallsville Invitational about a week prior to playing Mexico. 

Gordon, who usually operates in the front row, was serving for a majority of that 17-1 first set run and had the ball during the 12-0 second set run. She picked up five service aces along the way, followed by three straight recorded by Katie Carrico in the third set. Crum said girls sometimes go through hot and cold stretches when serving.

“Gordon served for what seemed like a million times,” Crum said. “She moved from eighth-grade volleyball to varsity level volleyball. She’s a great passer, but it’s getting those experiences in the back row. I had switched to Carley Hombs and let her serve because she’s a strong server and then Carley had a bad run there for a little bit so Ryenn started serving. She’s got a lot of power in that swing.”

Willis said Mexico did break those Centralia runs when she had the optimum group of players on the court. She admitted it was a challenge with several varsity players unavailable due to various reasons like injury and sickness, like recent William Woods commit Mary Test, so some junior varsity players have had to step up. Setter Claire Isgrig and outside hitter/defensive specialist Ava Herron were two junior varsity players that jumped out to Willis due to their hustle.

“It was the rotation that I had in and I adjusted it later on,” Willis said. “Once I did, we really did well on breaking a serve. They actually passed the ball and were smart about those things of pushing the ball and putting the ball down.”

JaClynn Cline led Mexico once again with five kills and two aces, followed by two aces from Lizzie Joiner.

Crum said she would like to see Centralia take control of sets even earlier than it did against Mexico because of the tough district opponents coming soon like Fulton (11-4-1) and Hallsville (7-10-3).

“I told the girls we keep having rough starts to our sets like we score a point and then they score a point and we score two points and they score two points,” Crum said. “You need to get the ball and control the game.”