Sept 11 away v Wheatmore

Played up two spots, split in Singles, a hard charge in dubs, and a monkey ball to top it all.

Wheatmore has a special place in my heart.  They are always at/near the top in their conference.  Their Coaching staff is exemplary. From the hill looking over the courts you can see part of the Uwharries...well at least some of the valleys and mountain tops...this coupled with the clouds rolling in...it is a beautiful sight to behold.

Always wanting the Cowgirls to give their best, I challenge them in select matches.  In short, I pulled Annie Bodin and Lauren Cook out of the line-up to allow two other Cowgirls the chance to stretch their limbs in play.

Knowing the Lady Warriors had two, maybe three strong top ladies, I left my top three in place.  Annie was 4, moving Laney up to 4, Lauren 6, allowing Lydia Specht and Abigail Lowe into the top six for the night.  

What I didn’t know was the Lady Warriors had gotten a lot deeper since last season.  Ladies and Gentlemen...it was a tight match.

Down, up, down, down, down, down after the first three games of their respective matches...The longer I studied each court, the more I knew we should be able to turn around 3, maybe 4 matches.  

Catching hold on 1, beautiful play from Meghan on 2, struggling on 3, finding her footing on 4, struggling on 5, and still down 3-0 on 6.

I was beginning to doubt my ability to gauge teams.  I hate doubting myself...so I simply don’t do that. A horrible habit to even begin….like starting each sentence with the word “Um” or teaching...simply nasty habits.

Deciding the put the flask away until absolutely necessary, I began to chat with the Cowgirls as their games allowed during the changeovers.  

Christina’s serve was strong on court 1 and her forehand was coming around.  She had material to work with against her opponent.

Meghan was still living the dream on court 2.  Approaching, volleying, and getting some sick angles off of her approaches.  Her girl was quality which allowed Meghan to hit out a bit more...just Meghan’s toolbox was filled to the brim of tools her opponent hadn’t seen very often.

Gretchen was coming around on court 3. She was totally in the game mentally, just her shots were off.  

Laney settled down, spotted her opportunities, and began the climb back into game contention on Court 4

Lydia was gaining much traction against a loopy hitting tall and long in reach opponent on court 5.

Abigail on court 6 halted the progress of her opponent at 0-3 and took the rest of the match rolling off 10 games in a row, breaking her opponent 5 times in a comfortable win.

Meghan too cruised to victory in spite of a brief uprising from her opponent...quickly squashing all hope for her counterpart, Meghan also wins, 10-2.

Court 6 never materialized.  Lydia did gain some momentum, raising her play, pushing her opponent a bit harder, lifting her shots, hitting her corners, but alas a win never materialized.  Lydia falls 2-10.

2-1 singles score so far

Christina’s hitting really began to improve.  Down, but still on serve, Christina’s serve clipped the line every time, and her forehand showed signs of life.  Longer rallies ensued. Multiple heavy topspin action began to be the norm. Her opponent kept holding Christina off.  At 5-6, Fatigue starting the set in and a bit of pain in the leg, Christina dropped a serve. 5-7. A hold. 5-8. New determination...pain mounting. 6-8.  A hold. 6-9. A 7 deuce game. 7-9. Pain almost unbearable, a sprint to the net, the final point unsuccessful, 7-10… a great game of play from the young freshman.  

2-2

Court 3 still struggled.  The Lady warrior player her heart out and beat our Gretchen with the final score 5-10 in favor of Wheatmore.  This win would have played well in the balance of the match, but alas, we were now down 2-3 with only Laney on court 4 remaining.

Down 1-4 to begin the match, Laney set her determination.  2-4, 3-4...a hold and a break.

4-4, 4-5...both hold.

5-5, 6-5...Laney holds and breaks her opponent.

Though the scores are what people see, the match that was transpiring was filled with looooong rallies.  Hicks (wheatmore) moved the ball around the court with ease...and Laney was there to answer most shots. Shifting her game deeper and with more corners, Laney began to counter Hicks excellent angles and power.  Serves were hard and in from both parties, but Laney has an incredible mental game when she is focused.

7-5, 7-6...both hold serve

8-6, another break, 9-6, and multiple deuces later, Laney walks off the court having defeating and deflated her opponent’s play through a most evenly matched contest between the two schools.   

3-3  We go into Dubs tied.

Not that I wasn’t grateful, but I like being up 4-2 or better removing most doubt from the equation knowing the strengths of the dubs teams I have cultivated.

Whalen/Cross on court 1.  Back into the Line-up, Annie Bodin/Lauren Cook on court 2.  And a stretch play of Alethea Yu/Bea Calwitan on Court 3.

Able to push the flask of Dt Dr Pepper (what else did you think I put in my flask?) a bit deeper into my back pocket after we began strong on all three courts.

Whalen and Cross went up early and never looked back, 4-1.  

Bodin and Cook also went up early, 3-0.

Alethea and Bea started off at 3-0 too.

6-3...I could see us finishing this match with that record...not a bad play date.

But we didn’t finish the match there.

Bodin and Cook, simply overwhelmed the Lady Warriors #2 dubs after their top player had to sit out of dubs due to an injury on court 1 v Christina.  Playing an adjusted line up, the Warriors had little to counter excellent serving, cross court shots, and a bit of magic at the net. Cowgirls 8-1.

Alethea and Bea ran afoul shortly after the 3rd game.  Gaining their composure, the Lady Warriors gained back those three games plus two more.  Moving once more, the Cowgirls held serve, but that was the end of their comeback as the Cowgirls take a loss on Court 3 dubs. 4-8.

Tied 4-4.

Back to Court 1, the Cowgirls continued to hold their serve throughout.  A few errors of over hitting by the Cowgirls allowed for the closeness of each game and a few of their opponent’s service games to go more smoothly, but the Cowgirls carried on and push their opponents back.  Enter the Monkey Ball.

Now from time to time, there are certain shots that arise in normal play that the rule book might be warranted.  Luckily I have been around the block on this ruling.

A Monkey Ball (my term) is a ball that is hit from one side of the net to the other (relatively close to the net), but with such backspin the ball naturally spins backwards, back over the net of the originating side.  The ruling goes down as a point for the team who hit it. The actual rule 25b of the ITF rules of tennis: "After the ball in play has hit the ground within the correct court and has spun or been blown back over the net, the player reaches over the net and plays the ball into the correct court".  Richard Gasquet accomplished this v Djokovic in a great point - https://www.reddit.com/r/tennis/comments/1k2p6o/richard_gasquet_beautiful_drop_volley_that/

So you can see what it looks like.

So back to Court 1.  Gretchen playing up, Meghan returning serve.  Service, Meghan returned crosscourt, Ball lobbed to Gretchen, way above her head, a step back, pull down...directly to her baseline opponent, another lob, just out of reach, a HUGE Frameshot from Gretchen, so much spin, barely over the net, backspin, backspin, backspin, back over the net, the Lady Warriors had never seen this shot before and I cheer, knowing the rule, yelled “Monkey Ball” when the ball had bounced the second time and declared the point in favor of the Cowgirls.

I get excited sometimes.

Whalen and Cross finish out that game and take the last winning 8-4 in solid fashion.

Cowgirls top the Lady Warriors of Wheatmore in a close and excellently played match 5-4.

Singles

Sklar Craddock (W) over Christina Alentino (SW) 10-7

Meghan Whalen (SW) over Hannah Carter (W) 10-2

Kara Comer (W) over Gretchen Cross (SW) 10-5

Laney Van Dorp (SW) over Savannah Hicks (W) 10-6

Kyndall Fritz (W) over Lydia Specht (SW) 10-2

Abigail Lowe (SW) over Haley Carter (W) 10-4

3-3 Tie after singles

Dubs

Whalen/Cross (SW) over Comer/Hicks (W) 8-4

Bodin/Cook (SW) over Carter/Fritz (W) 8-1

Carter/Cove (W) over Yu/Calwitan (SW) 8-4

SW Cowgirls over the Lady Warriors of Wheatmore 5-4 in a great non-conference tennis match

Southwest rises to 11-1