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Rebstock claims singles title at Kennett Invitational
KENNETT, Mo. - It was a long and fairly hot morning on the tennis courts at Kennett High School.
Four Missouri teams traveled to the bootheel to compete in the annual Kennett Invitational singles and doubles tournament. Windsor, Dexter and Charleston all competed along with the Kennett-Holcomb tennis squad which hosted the tournament.
The competitions, which started at 9 a.m. and lasted through the afternoon, concluded with Kennett-Holcomb being crowned champions of their home court.
In the doubles matches, Claire Bean and Handley McAtee swept through the competition without dropping a single set all day.
They beat Windsor’s duo of Ella Cate and Ava Atzert. Bean and McAtee then went on to win over Serina Churchill and Avery Medley of Dexter before facing Sophia James and Kinley Kennedy, also from Dexter.
Bean and McAtee were crowned champions while James and Kennedy placed second in the competition. To round out third place, Jady Quinn and Lydia Teeter beat Churchill and Medley in two sets. The score was 6-3 for the first set, then 6-4 in the second. Churchill and Medley earned fourth to conclude the medal position in the doubles tournament.
Olivia Rebstock walked away as the individual champion in a hard fought battle for the singles tournament. She swept through the first two rounds, winning 2-0 against both Jalynn Proffer of Dexter and De’Ziyah Hamilton of Charleston. She then faced off against Febe Worley in the championship match.
Worley won the first set, before Rebstock came back to take the second. This sent the match into a tie breaker.
After a few back and forth play, with neither player gaining a clear advantage over the other, Rebstock stopped the match.
“I could feel myself wanting to throw up, but I kept pushing,” Rebstock said. “Then after the second tiebreaker, we had a 10-point tiebreaker and I didn’t know how that was going to go because I was starting to feel worse.”
Rebstock was down 2-3 in the 10 point tiebreaker when she ran off the courts to the nearest trash can.
“After I threw up I was great,” Rebstock said. “I felt amazing. I was still a little uneasy, but I pushed through and won.”
She came back and won the tie-breaker 10-6 to accomplish her first singles tournament win of the season.
After taking second at this same tournament last year, Rebstock was happy to find herself on top this time around.
“The heat was really a factor today,” Rebstock said. “It feels horrible when the sun is shining down in your face, while you're serving the sun’s in your eyes. Then you’re drinking and eating everything, the heat kinda makes you want to throw up. It was really bad but I pushed through.”
Worley had a long day against the Kennett team, as she battled through two tie-breakers. First against Emory Kamper to make it to the championship match, then against Rebstock, She was rewarded with a second place medal at the conclusion of the tournament.
Kamper beat Hamilton from Charleston to earn third and round out the medal winnings for Kennett.
After having four competitions in a row this week, the tennis team will have a three day break before hosting Dexter again next Tuesday, Sep. 10. The match will begin at 4 p.m.