The day began at 6:30 as coach began the process of rolling out the courts, squeegee-ing them off in preparation of the day's match in the afternoon.  Well, not really, but you can almost see the camera catching the first rays of sunlight as the morning dew still persists on the grass encircling the courts after a raining night...but I digress.

The cowgirls met at home this time for the second meeting against a greatly improved East Forsyth Lady Eagle team from just the previous year.  Coach Cooke (EF) has received a blessing in the form of a solid hitting and decent depth along her lineup.  But having the mental edge after winning the first dual team match; the Cowgirls saw little reason for worry in our second encounter.

Carley Anne Bullman (#4) took honors of walking off the court in only 44 minutes soundly defeating her opponent with double doughnuts (6-0, 6-0) all but securing the fastest match of the season.  Kyra Akanda (#5) was able to defeat her opponent as well with double doughnuts walking off the court just 10 mins later.  Third to come off was Maggie Jermyn (#1) taking care of business 0 and 4.  Her opponent, though totally unprepared in the first set, managed and impressive run in the second but the talents of Maggie were just too much for her to overcome.  Mai Vo (#3) and Meenu Immaneni (#6 – Early College) finished off their opponents shortly thereafter, both by impressive margins. 

The Singles match of the evening went to Sophia Nagy (#2), battling again her EF counterpart.  The first meeting resulted in a win for Sophia, in three sets, tiebreaker in the first (EF), Sophia taking the 2^nd set handedly, and the final blow 10-2 in the third.  Clearly this was going to be a good match.

Sophia dropped the first match 1-6, with most of the games going to or near deuce.  To put it in perspective, Maggie was finished with her match before Sophia and her opponent had finished their first set.  Yes, we were in a tight playing and lengthy match.  Sophia, having dropped the first set, was able to refocus her mental game and came out swinging.  Back and forth, not dropping serve until Sophia had her for three deuces and broke EF’s serve, now tied at 4 all.  Sophia held serve…5-4.  EF held serve by the slimmest of margins…5-5.  Sophia holds…6-5.  And with excellent play through a 18 hit final point rally, Sophia comes out the victory for set #2. 

Now having split sets, a 10 point super tiebreaker.  Sophia lost the first point on her serve and failed to convert EF’s next two serves.  0-3.  The fourth point going to EF, Sophia splits her service point and claims the next 1-4.  Taking only one of the next four points, 2-7.  Then the long rallies began.  Hit after hit, line after line, corner chasing corner from both sides… 1 more for Sophia.  1 more for Sophia.  1 more for Sophia. 1 for EF.  5-8.  The next long rally goes to Sophia. 6-8, we have a shot, but EF digs deep and goes up 6-9.  And pushing through a 6 point rally, extending too much, Sophia’s shot goes wide, EF’s win. 

Though a bit disheartened, Sophia had done something she hadn’t been able to do all of last year, to change gears mid play and refocus her efforts to turn around the game into her favor.  A big tip of the hat to Sophia and all of her work through the season.

Doubles went as planned.  Pulling the Cowgirls #1 dubs team Jermyn/Bullman for rest purposes after singles, Nagy/Shelton went up against EF’s #1 dubs winning 8-5.  Jobe and Mills made quick work  v EF #2 8-2.  And playing up for only the third time in top Six action, Brittney Lee/Srijana Chhetri defeated as well trained EF #3 8-2.

The Cowgirls win 8-1, raising their record to 10-5 overall and 4-4 in the conference.

The Cowgirls play @ Northwest on Monday and host HPC on Wednesday for the final two conference matches of the season.