STRONG SURGE: BHS tennis player advances to state championship match, loses close
Even though she didn’t ensnare an elusive state title, Maddie Shelley still powered to one of the greatest tennis seasons in Bartlesville High School history.
Shelley’s first two No. 1 singles opponents in last weekend’s Class 6A girls state tournament wilted before her like flowers in a fire.
After grinding through a tough semifinal with a victory, Shelley took Edmond North’s A. Heu in the championship final Saturday at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center.
Heu dominated the first set, 6-1, but Shelley stung back to win the middle set, 7-6 (2). Heu squeezed out the win in the third set, 6-3, to claim the crown and finalize Shelley’s place as the state runner-up.
Bartlesville’s No. 2 singles battler Annabelle Kelly also placed.
Kelly bounced back from a second round loss to make a run through the consolation bracket and finished sixth.
Kelly opened up by defeating an Edmond Santa Fe challenger, 6-1, 6-2.
But, H. Hibbets of Enid then dispatched Kelly to the consolation bracket, 6-2, 6-0.
Kelly responded the right way — she hammered a Stillwater rival, 6-1, 6-2, and took down a Jenks foe, 6-4, 6-0.
Those wins advanced her to the fifth-place match.
An Edmond North netter outlasted her for fifth place, 6-3, 6-3, which lodged Kelly in sixth place.
In doubles play, Bartlesville’s duos of Parker Cox and Ava Kelly, and Brook Franks and Julia Osburn finished 0-2 in No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles action, respectively.
Shelley stomped and romped her way to a 19-1 record for the season and earned the No. 1 seed at the state tourney.
She walloped her first two opponents (Stillwater and Southmoore), 6-0, 6-1, and 6-1, 6-0.
Shelley then displayed real grit by scrapping past an Owasso player, 6-4, 6-3, in the semifinal.
But, Heu had more experience in state tourney play plus a much larger crowd of home fans, Bartlesville head coach Bryan Reeves noted.
“I think she (Shelley) played really well,” Reeves said. “She commands her emotions really well. She’s really had only two years of high school tennis. … She didn’t have as much experience in state play.”
As it was, Shelley finished third in state as a freshman, missed the 2020 season, along with everyone else, due to the virus-related shutout, was injured and underwent surgery to end her 2021 season early and then wrapped up by coming in second at state.
She cast a huge shadow in Lady Bruin tennis lore.
This article originally appeared on Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise: Focus on Bartlesville High at girls state tennis meet
