MMU’s Bea Molson returns to glory, CVU girls claim doubles at tennis championships

SOUTH BURLINGTON – The 2025 Vermont girls tennis individual championships involved girls from just two schools with representatives from Champlain Valley facing off against opponents from Mount Mansfield.

The schools managed to split the championships at The EDGE in South Burlington on Saturday, May 31 to conclude the three-day individual tournament before team playoffs begin the first week of June.

Bea Molson book ends career with another championship

Three years ago, Mount Mansfield’s Bea Molson became the first Cougar to win a girls tennis individual championship as a freshman. Molson had not earned a spot again in the singles championship match until her senior season. The Cougar suffered losses in the quarterfinals in 2023 and the semifinals in 2024 to eventual champion Anna Dauerman of Champlain Valley.

Molson entered the 2025 individual tournament as the top seed after winning all 11 regular-season matches. There the senior earned her redemption, defeating third-seeded Dauerman 6-4, 6-3 capturing her second individual title in her high school career.

“(My strategy was) just to keep the play going and hit it behind her to hit winners and just focus on the ball and hit it deep,” Molson said.

Champlain Valley’s Ariel Toohey finally wins doubles championship

For the last two years, CVU’s Ariel Toohey and her former partner Addie Maurer lost in the doubles finals match to Stowe’s Gabby Doehla and Katie Tilgner. With Doehla and Tilgner graduated, Toohey had a chance.

The senior had a new partner in sophomore Rylee Makay. Both Toohey and Makay play mostly singles for CVU, so the start of the individual tournament was the first time they played doubles together.

Despite not having on-the-court chemistry prior to the tournament, Toohey and Makay found a groove that continued into the finals match. Toohey and Makay defeated MMU’s Estelle First and Ava Poehlmann, 7-6, 3-6, 10-4 in a three-set thriller giving the senior the title she fell short of for the past two springs.

“Definitely super satisfying, especially in my senior year,” Toohey said. “It was good to have a new opponent and a new partner and just a fresh start.”

Toohey and Makay immediately clicked and their cohesion was evident during the first two days of the tournament. Toohey and Makay won their first three matchups in straight sets to book a spot in the finals.

In the third set tiebreaker, the Redhawks won the first three points and managed to hold the Cougars off helping CVU win its seventh overall girls doubles championship and first since 2018.

Toohey and Makay gained confidence after winning the first set tiebreaker that carried them to their third set victory.

“I feel like we didn’t put too much pressure on ourselves going into it,” Toohey said. “We knew we had nothing to lose because we didn’t have a reputation as a double team, so we kind of gave it our all.”

Contact Judith Altneu at jaltneu@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @Judith_Altneu.