By Fred Kroner
Juniors Savannah Amatyleon and Emily Young became the first Mahomet-Seymour doubles team to qualify for the girls’ tennis state tournament by placing fourth at the Champaign Sectional on Saturday (Oct. 15) at the Lindsay courts.
Amatyleon and Young ended the two-day event with a 2-2 record at sectionals. They will be one of 64 doubles duos at state, starting on Thursday (Oct. 19) at various suburban Chicago locations.
They have a 6-8 season record. Amatyleon and Young opened sectional play with back-to-back wins, 6-2, 6-4 (over St. Joseph-Ogden’s Addison Seggebruch and Lily Rice) and 6-3, 6-0 (over Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley’s Lexi Cliff and Syda Schlickman) before falling in the semifinals and the third-place match.
“Throughout the year, Savannah and Emily got better and better understanding how important movement and shot selection can be in doubles,” M-S coach Alex Amatyleon said. “Their volleys and serves are improving as well, but nowhere near where they will be after our offseason.
“We played well enough in the season to secure a No. 4 seed (at sectionals), and that helped us avoid the top seeds in the tournament. We received a first-round bye and then beat our next two opponents to qualify.”
Amatyleon and Young are the first doubles players ever from M-S to advance to state.
M-S tied for seventh at the 11-school sectional with six points.
The Bulldogs’ other sectional entries suffered season-ending losses in their first sectional match.
M-S was represented by Holland Martin and Claire Johnson in singles. The Bulldogs’ other doubles entry was Adella Bird and Ashley Shoaf.
In its history, M-S has had one other state-qualifier. Sara Rice advanced in singles in 2014 as a senior.
