By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
The Notre Dame doubles team of senior Francie Case and junior Kylie Moellering won two matches on Friday to advance to the semifinal round of the girls’ state tennis tournament at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Notre Dame senior Francie Case
Seeded No. 4 in the doubles bracket, Case and Moellering will face the second-seeded duo of Madelyn Kauffman and Sophie Shiben of McCracken County at 9 a.m. Saturday. The winners will play for the state title at noon.
This is the first time that Case and Moellering have played doubles together in the post-season playoffs. After winning the 9th Region championship to qualify for the state tournament, they won two matches on Thursday and two on Friday to make it to the final four.
Their closest match was a 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (6) victory over an unseeded doubles team on Friday morning. They followed that up with a 6-2, 6-3 win over fifth-seeded Abby Birk and Samantha Higgins of Louisville Sacred Heart in a quarterfinal match on Friday afternoon.
The only local entry in the boys’ state tennis tournament that made it to the quarterfinals was the unseeded Conner doubles team of seniors Nathan Eberhard and Nick Elleman. They became the first tennis players from Conner to make it to the state quarterfinals before losing to fourth-seeded Trey Akmon and Tommy McConville of Louisville Trinity, 6-1, 6-1.
The local players who made it to the round of 16 in the state tennis tournament were Elizabeth Pawsat and Katherine Taylor of Beechwood in girls’ doubles, Brooke Warden of Dixie Heights and Lexi Herman of Highlands in girls’ singles, Max Cook of Covington Catholic in boys’ singles and Blake Heimbrock and Benito Trojani of CovCath in boys’ doubles.
