One played the best match of her life. The other, perhaps one of the worst.
For all of the analysis and game-planning, the biggest reason for Minnetonka junior Bella Lambert's 6-0, 7-5 victory over Edina's Sophia Reddy on Friday in the Class 2A singles final was hard to pinpoint. Lambert was sharp. Reddy, admittedly, was not.
"Worst match I've played in a couple of years," lamented Reddy, the tournament's No. 1 seed. "An unbelievable amount of unforced errors. Probably more in that one match than I've had all season."
It's likely some of them were far from unforced. Lambert, a junior whose older sister Aria won back-to-back singles championships in 2008 and 2009, worked her game to perfection at Baseline Tennis Center. She stayed away from Reddy's wicked backhand and made her opponent uncomfortable.
Lambert breezed through the first set 6-0, the first time a player had shut out an opponent in a set in a championship match since 2008. "She was in a zone," said Aria, who, coincidentally, was the last player to win a set in the finals without losing a game.
Lambert agreed that it was the best tennis she's played all season. "I would definitely say so.'' she said. "I was on a roll, and I don't think she was playing her best."
Lambert parlayed her first-set dominance into a gritty effort in set two when Reddy rallied to take leads of 4-2 and 5-4.
"She stepped it up in the second set, but I just focused on what I needed to do to get the next point," Lambert said.
