End of the road
Jun. 10—INDIANAPOLIS — Jamison Geoffreys knew she had a difficult draw and would have to play her best tennis in order to continue advancing through the state finals this weekend.
But she was far from perfect against the 2021 state runner-up, and the Anderson prodigy's season and high school career is at an end.
Geoffreys could not seize on her own early momentum and fell 6-2, 6-0 to Lauren Long of Park Tudor on Long's home court Friday morning.
The season ended for Geoffreys with a 20-2 mark while Long (23-1) advanced to the quarterfinals where she will meet Molly Bellia (26-1) from South Bend St. Joseph's, the defending state champ who beat Long in the finals a year ago.
Geoffreys credited Long with keeping her off balance and on the defensive through much of the match.
"Her serve was a big factor. Her serve is really hard to return," Geoffreys said. "She hit really deep with her shots."
Long's serve wasn't as effective in the opening game as it would be later as Geoffreys broke to go up 1-0. But the Park Tudor senior broke back to draw even, and after Geoffreys came back from 0-30 in her next service game the first set was even at 2-2.
After Long held to keep the match on serve, the match began to take a negative direction for Geoffreys. A double-fault opened the door for Long to pick up her second broken serve and begin some visible frustration from Geoffreys.
"I kept missing a lot of shots," Geoffreys said. "I was moving good, but I was making all the errors because I was trying to hit too good of shots when I should have just stayed in the point."
Among the errors were a total of seven double-faults from Geoffreys, including two consecutively in the final game that allowed Long to take the first set 6-2. In an effort to reduce those occurrences, Geoffreys often took a little off her second serve to make sure it was in, but Long attacked those attempts relentlessly.
"She took care of business on those second serves," Anderson coach David Ellis said of Long.
Geoffreys never gained a toe-hold in the second set, and with all the momentum on her side, Long powered through to the quarterfinals, breaking Geoffreys' serve three times in the second set.
Her two losses this year were to the No. 1-ranked player in the state — Emma Gu of West Lafayette Harrison — and a returning state finalist, and Ellis said Geoffreys has a lot to be proud of.
"It's quite an accomplishment to be here," he said. "To get to participate at this level, you expect to see the best of the best in the state, and that's what we saw. 41-3 (career record). That's pretty impressive."
"I take a lot of pride. I feel like I came far," Geoffreys said. "It was really fun. I love the team, and everyone was so nice. I'm going to miss the school."
Her career will continue later this year at St. Thomas University, an NAIA school in Miami.
Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.
