SPRINGFIELD, MO. — Rachel Stuhlmann celebrated her 18th birthday Friday at the Missouri state girls tennis championship in Springfield.
But the real celebration was Saturday for the Kirkwood senior as she captured the Class 2 singles championship in impressive fashion.
Stuhlmann became the first singles player since 1987 to win the championship match without losing a game as she defeated Suzanne Barth of Park Hill 6-0, 6-0 at the Cooper Tennis Complex.
Barth, the defending Class 2 doubles champion, had lost just four games in her three previous matches prior to the championship but was no match for Stuhlmann.
"I did this for Mr. (Art) Stout," Stuhlmann said. "I wanted to end his 50-plus-year career on a good note."
Stuhlmann is the first singles champion for Stout, who has coached the Kirkwood boys for 53 years and the Pioneer girls for all 34 years in which there has been a state championship.
"This means more to me than you know," said Stout, who will coach the Kirkwood boys in the spring and then hang it up. "It's like Christmas. This is very special and Rachel played excellent tennis."
Stuhlmann lost just 18 total points in the championship match.
"This was really important for me," Stuhlmann said. "It feels great. I was a little nervous before the match but was very relaxed once we started to play."
Sophomore Sydney Lehman made it a St. Louis sweep of the two singles titles as she won the Class 1 championship by defeating Hannah Wille of MICDS 6-4, 6-3.
Lehman extends Burroughs' streak of singles champions to seven. Susan Sullivan won from 2003-2005 while Sydney's older sister, Alex, won from 2006-2008.
"Alex (who is at Harvard) called me before the match and told me I could do it," Lehman said. "I am just so happy to keep the streak alive at Burroughs. I love that school. I didn't feel I was hitting a clean ball today and Hannah is the exact type of player I don't like to play. But I was able to stay patient enough and I fought hard."
The tournament also featured a first as Westminster Christian Academy's Christine Schlafly and Lauren DeRousse became the first Wildcat state tennis champions. They defeated Visitation freshmen Jocelyn Koester and Brianna Menalascino 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 in Class 1 doubles.
"We came here wanting to win but we really didn't know if we could do it," DeRousse said. "We had to beat some really good teams just to get to the championship match. It was cool just being in the finals and just unbelievable to win it all."
St. Joseph's Academy came within a third-set tiebreaker of giving St. Louis all four state individual titles. Seniors Katie Thome and Madeline Jolly came back from a 4-0 deficit in the third set to force a tiebreaker but eventually fell to Kickapoo's Carlee Rozell and Mackenzie Rozell 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 in Class 2 doubles.
Eureka's Marcia Klopf and Lindy McBratney finished fourth while Marquette's Gaby Ramirez and Helen Li won the consolation doubles championship in Class 2, winning four matches with only a loss to the Rozells.
MICDS' Courtney Cassity and Carly Cassity won the third-place Class 1 doubles match over Katy Barenholtz and Katie Smith of John Burroughs 3-6, 6-0, 6-2. Visitation's Sami Hornbarger won the Class 1 singles consolation title.
