BLOOMINGTON — “Oakley is a beast at the net.”
Senior Lilia McHaley should know, having a first-hand look as Yoder, her No. 1 doubles partner, had the net covered like yellow fuzz on a tennis ball. Leaping, shifting, poaching, or not, she’s in constant motion at the net.
Yoder put away plenty of volleys, and McHaley had things taken care of at the baseline, each playing to their strengths in a 6-1, 7-6(3) win that clinched the third point of a 4-1 win at Bloomington South on Thursday, April 30.
“Oakley and I just work really well together,” McHaley said. “We really balance out each other’s energy.”
Yoder’s mentality at the net has changed drastically.
“I think last year, I’ve always been better at the net,” Yoder said. “But something kind of locked inside of me, the initiative to go for everything is always intimidating and also gives you a better chance of winning. So, just the aggressiveness of going for everything.
“And Lilia is so great at setting me up. She has a great loop on it, so they hit it up high, and I can smack it down.”
McHaley is generally calmer than Yoder and more comfortable on the baseline. “So it balances out,” McHaley said, but she’s always there to back up Yoder those times where a shot is just out of reach.
“A lot of the time, it is just me being ready,” McHaley said. “She is going for everything, but I have to be ready to pick up.”
The duo had to do a big reset after running away with the first set and going up 5-2 in the second. South’s Mira Koduri and Clara Tweedle came storming back, hitting winner after winner to go up 6-5.
But the Cougars won the next game and took charge of the tie-breaker, going up 6-2 and finishing it off to avoid any third-set dramatics.
“We got a little too comfortable,” Yoder said. “I think we were too worried about, at least I was, thinking the match was already over and imagining myself walking off the court.
“So it took a little bit to get back in it. I’m glad we had that because it kind of woke us up a bit, and we were able to pull through.”
“They have good chemistry together,” North coach Barb Mills said. “And that was a real fight.”
North has a still young team that has built well off last year’s struggles.
“I think the energy has shifted from last year,” McHaley said. “We all have more confidence. Our team’s only grown. We have more knowledge in the sport. I think the biggest thing is the confidence.”
The Cougars (6-2, 3-1 Conference Indiana) topped South (5-6, 2-2) for the first time since the 2023 sectional final.
“So awesome,” Yoder said. “We’ve had a great season. Last year, we had three wins overall, and now, we’ve doubled that. It’s been great.”
Hoops star finding success in singles
Basketball is North sophomore Kate Lehr’s forte in the winter, but she has resurrected her tennis skills from an earlier time to give the Cougars’ lineup a boost.
Tennis was a sport Lehr played seriously as a youth and in middle school, but quit for a bit. She decided to break up the basketball routine this spring. After a tryout at doubles, she switched over for her first varsity singles matches this week, and it’s looking good after her second outing.
She picked up the first win of the day for North, 6-2, 6-2 over Hannah Vandeventer, at the No. 3 spot.
“I like singles a lot more,” Lehr said. “I can get a better rhythm, and I just hit the ball better.”
Lehr, whose dad played collegiately and mom also played in high school, picked up the game early, competing in some tournaments in the Hamptons (NY). She played into junior high, then took a break. She came back wanting to do something different this spring.
“Basketball is my main thing,” she said. “But I just needed something to separate from it, a fun sport where there’s not so much pressure.”
Picking up a racquet again, it took some time to get the old feel back. Her slice and serve have been good, but forehand and backhand groundstrokes are taking some time to find the consistency she’d like.
“We’ve been going back and forth on 3 singles,” Mills said. “And Kate’s a really tough, tricky player.”
“It was a little rough at first,” Lehr said. “My arm was really sore the first week.”
Work to do for South
It was a competitive battle, especially at the top two singles spots, where long, long rallies highlighted almost every point.
“It shows you how hard it is to win a point,” Mills said. “All four of them are very mentally tough. They just don’t give up.”
It was a split there as North’s Sarah Kaviani started off down 1-4 at No. 2 against Grace Dykstra, but rallied for a 6-4, 6-2 win. South’s Carla Demeter held off Casey O’Connell, 6-3, 6-4 at No. 1, but as with the rest of the Panthers, head coach Matt Corry wanted to see more aggressive play from her.
“I think their girls came out ready to battle, and we struggle with making adjustments to that,” Corry said. “And trying to play safe, I’ve been preaching doesn’t work. Their girls stepped up, took the volleys, and played fearlessly.
“At singles, they were very consistent and patient. I appreciate the grit the Bloomington North showed to be able to be patient and wait for us to make mistakes. We’ve got some adjustments to make for a good number of things.”
At 2 doubles, North’s Ashley Stegemoller and Ally O’Guinn kept control in a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Nia Johnson and Stella Hamm, which Mills was happy to see the pair finish off as quickly as they did.
South, with three new starters this year who battled the nerves of their first North-South match, now knows where the bar lies and what it needs to work on if it wants to win a third straight sectional title.
A tough schedule ahead that includes No. 16 Columbus North, No. 22 Plainfield, and No. 4 Center Grove will lead into sectional and a likely rematch with their rivals,
“We’ve got a to-do list,” Corry said. “There’s nothing friendly about the rest of our schedule. So we’ve just got to grow up a lot more and grow our game and see how we can rebound in the next few weeks.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Doubles net success for Bloomington North girls tennis in win over South
Reporting by Jim Gordillo, The Herald-Times / The Herald-Times
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