Tennis: Steinmühle Finishes in a Solid 3rd Place at the JtfO Regional Finals

The Steinmühlen tennis team, competing in Competition Class II for mixed teams, took home a solid third-place finish at the regional finals of the “Youth Trains for the Olympics” competition in Wetzlar.

In the group stage, the Steinmühle team won their first match against the Wilhelm-von-Oranien-Schule from Dillenburg by a fairly wide margin, 10–4. After the girls struggled in their singles matches—losing both—and the boys won their singles matches decisively, the score was tied at 4–4 heading into the final doubles matches. Steinmühle ultimately prevailed convincingly in both the mixed doubles and the two singles matches.

 

The boys’ doubles team a commanding victory

In the second group match against Taunusschule from Bad Camberg, the team was now playing for first place in the group, which would have secured a slightly easier opponent in the semifinals. This match also followed a similar pattern at first. After the two girls’ and boys’ singles matches, the score was once again 4–4, so the outcome would once more be decided by the doubles and mixed doubles matches. It quickly became apparent that our boys’ doubles team was once again on track for a commanding victory, but the mixed doubles team found itself on the losing end early in the match. After taking a 3–0 lead in the girls’ doubles, victory in this match seemed within reach, but our girls lost their concentration a bit toward the end and ultimately had to settle for a 3–3 tie. The higher number of games won across all matches ultimately tipped the scales in favor of the school from Bad Camberg, despite the score being tied at 7–7.

 

Despite facing strong opponents never gave up

As expected, the Steinmühle team didn’t stand a chance in the semifinal against the eventual tournament champion from Oberursel, as some of their players competed at a significantly higher skill level. Nevertheless, our team never gave up during the match and tried to hold their own as best they could. In the end, however, the result was a sobering 0–14. In the other semifinal, Bad Camberg did indeed prevail and, like the eventual champion from Oberursel, secured a spot in the Hesse finals.

Next year, our tennis team will certainly be back in action and will try to reach the Hesse finals, just as we have in the past two years.

 

The team (from left):

Anton Kelz, Lutz Lehning, Tom Horn, Max Weckmüller

Nina Horn, Caroline Meyfarth, Katharina Karavaev, Hannah Busch