Barstow Doubles Wins Second Consecutive State Championship!
The Barstow doubles team of Stephanie Dudzinski and Merideth Rock brought home the second consecutive state championship Saturday, dominating the tournament.
The opening round began Friday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Springfield Catholic. From there the girls moved on to the quarterfinals against one of the three best teams in the championship, Visitation Academy from St. Louis. Playing long, tough points early, the Merideth and Stephanie finally pulled away from a slim 3-2 lead to win the first set and close the second, 6-2.
The girls played Westminster out of St. Louis Saturday morning in the semi-finals and had little trouble. Behind the net play of Merideth and the strong serving and solid ground game of Stephanie, the girls dispatched Westminster, 6-1, 6-0. This win vaulted the girls into the finals for the much anticipated rematch with the doubles team from Notre Dame de Sion. Stephannie and Merideth had lost to this team in early September, but had two recent wins in tournaments. And after a first close round, the Sion girls had rolled through the weekend hardly dropping a game.
The first five games went back and forth, with Barstow emerging with a 3-2 lead. Then the girls kicked in. Breaking the Sion service game with big returns and big plays at the net by both girls, Barstow ran off three games in a row to win the first set. The second set began with a rare break of Dudzinski’s serve. After the changeover, the girls came out with fire in their eyes. Again, with powerful service returns and abusive play at the net by both girls, Barstow broke back. It would be the last time the match would seem close. With Merideth Rock dominatng net play and Stephanie running down virtually every ball in the backcourt and returning with amazing depth, the Barstow team finished their run of six games in a row to win 6-2, 6-1, an almost unheard of margin for a championship finals.
This was Stephanie’s fourth trip to the Missouri State Championships and Merideth’s first. Congratulations girls!