SPRINGFIELD—Doubles team Lauren DeRousse, junior, and Christine Schlafly, junior, won the class 1 girl’s doubles title Saturday afternoon in Springfield. The duo won four matches in two days to win the tournament. They defeated teams from Bishop Dubourg, Pembroke Hill, John Burroughs, and Visitation.

The finals match against two freshmen from Visitation was a thriller. The girls won the first set 6-2, but quickly went down in the second 3-0. They won four consecutive games to lead 4-3. DeRousse and Schlafly led 6-5 late in the second set but couldn’t hold on. They eventually lost the second in a tiebreaker 7-4.

DeRousse and Schlafly were hot coming out of the gate in the third. They took an early 5-2 lead. Visitation fought back to make it 5-4 but DeRousse and Schlafly put the match away with an overhead from DeRousse.

“The match was so close. I seriously felt like I was going to throw up. It felt great when I put that final overhead away,” said DeRousse.

The girls are the first Westminster state tennis champions. “We were so close to winning so many times so when it finally came, it felt amazing. This is the greatest accomplishment I’ve ever achieved. The only word I can describe it with is ‘crazypants’,” said Schlafly.

The girls now have a long off season to train to get the repeat.