Sunday, May 8, began the first round of the NJCAA Division I Women's National Tennis Tournament in Tuscon, Arizona for Danah McCreary and Katie Hayes, both Lewis and Clark Community College freshmen.
McCreary faced an opponent from Kalamazoo Valley in Michigan in the Main Draw at No. 1 singles. She played a great match and won 6-1, 6-0.
Hayes represented L&C at the No. 2 singles spot and faced a fellow Illinois player from College of Lake County. She started off strong, defeating her opponent 6-3 in the first set. Hayes was trailing 4-1 in the second set, when she decided that a third set tie-breaker was not an option, and battled back to defeat her opponent 7-5 in the second set.
The Trailblazers also competed at No. 1 doubles on Sunday, but drew a tough No. 2 seed, Lee College, and ended up losing 6-1, 6-0.
Both McCreary and Hayes continued in the main draw on Monday, May 9. McCreary faced a tough opponent, the No. 8 seed from Temple College Brittni Faucett and lost 6-1, 6-0. Katie Hayes played the No. 1 seed from Lee College, Kristina Kanarkina and lost 6-0, 6-0.
In Doubles play also on Monday, L&C wound up against the strong team of Haley Highfield and Kelsi Ragan of Snead State Community College in Alabama. The girls started off playing well and came out to a quick lead 1-0, but the Snead State team quickly recovered and started to play more aggressively and consistently, beating Lewis and Clark 8-1.