Girls Tennis: Co-SWC Tournament Champions
Sep 17, 2025|Girls Tennis
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The Steele Girls Tennis team celebrated a very successful SWC Tournament showing, with all positions placing in the top 4, 2 of which finishing as Runners Up, and 2 others taking home 1st place. It has been many years since Amherst could say they have a positional conference champion.
This year, they can say that they have 2!
Senior 1st Singles Kayla Bussard continued her undefeated streak at 21 wins and her 81st overall victory, taking down Avon's Ashley DeHaven in straight sets 6-3 6-2 to finally reach the mountain top after 3 years of coming up short. She placed 4th, 4th, and Runner-Up in her past attempts.
Freshman 2nd Singles Sienna Nagy got a taste of SWC gold on her first attempt, getting revenge from her previous loss to Avon's Nora Fiest during their dual matchup and getting the best of her at the tourney 7-5, 7-5.
Junior 3rd Singles Emma Timko had a great showing at the tournament, but Elyria's 4th seeded Danica Knepper would not be denied, upsetting both the 1st seed at Avon and the 2nd seeded Emma to take the title.
Seniors at 1st Doubles Sadi Dorazio and Cali Smith handled their business as the 4th seed and were able to get out of the first round, but then were defeated by #1 seed Avon in the semis on Saturday, then lost to #3 seed North Ridgeville 6-4 7-6(3) to finish 4th.
Finally, Senior Maria Bak and Junior Madison Clappas, both fighting illnesses, pulled off the upset in the semifinals, taking down #2 seed Avon Lake for a date with destiny against Avon. They put up a great fight, but would ultimately fall to the top seed, 6-4 6-4.
When the dust settled, the girls tied with Avon at 35 points each to become Co-Champs of the SWC tournament. However, since Avon had the better record in the regular season, that tipped the scales for the Conference title to the Eagles. One more tournament point would have resulted in a share of the conference title with Avon, a title that has eluded Steele since their only one... in 2002.
The Steele Sisterhood heads out to Elyria to finish their SWC campaign against the Pioneers.