Senior Margo Gerke and junior Catherine Henne received a 2nd place finish Oct. 15 at the Missouri Class 2 High School Tennis Championships held at the Cooper Tennis Complex in Springfield, Mo. The doubles team have a 21-3 record and those three losses are to out-of-state competition.

The idea of state was not new to either player for both have performed at the state level before and had success. As a sophomore Gerke won 1st place in the class two tournament with Michaela Henne, and as a junior received 5th place in singles. Henne won 6th place in singles her freshman year, and sophomore year won 6th place in doubles alongside junior Lanie Jones.

The new idea to the pair was actually competing together at the championship level. This idea didn’t scare either of them because they had played doubles together in the regular season, giving them a chance to better understand one another’s play better.

“Over the course of the season Margo and I played almost every match together. We got to know how the other played as well has how [each other’s] mind works mentally. Knowing these things about each other was a key component going into state,” Henne said. “It took a while for us to truly figure the other out but by the time state rolled around I was very confident in my partner’s abilities as well as my own.”

After seeing how they both played it was clear to them that they were opposite players in mindset and skill but this only made them a stronger team.

“Catherine and I are opposites in many respects; therefore we complement each other very well. I am more energetic and intense on the court while she has more of a calming presence,” Gerke said. “Likewise, our game styles are very different. I like to grind out points from the baseline while she finishes with an overhead.”

Henne claims that at the beginning of the season she didn’t think she would make it to the finals at state and Gerke wasn’t even sure if she could play this season because of shoulder surgery.

“Making it to the finals was a dream. After our first match we came stepped on the court with 100 percent confidence that we could do it, it was just a matter of putting the pieces together,” Henne said.

Understanding one another’s game and collaborating as a team is what it took for them to hang on in the finals. In the final round Gerke and Henne faced Katherine Dudley and Faith Wright from Columbia Rockbridge but lost in 6-1 6-2.