September 14, 2016 – Northwest            

Playing a team who has defeated all the other conference teams thus far, took out Grimsley, and usurped the king of the hill Page 5-4 in match play, intimidation didn’t even cross my mind.

Cowgirls hosting the Lady icings of Northwest.

I would love to write about our dramatic Cinderella story, coming from behind, and hitting that last winning shot, but the reality isn’t as thrilling as the fiction we wish, but we did have some moments throughout the night.

Kyra Akande Court 1

Mai Vo Court 2

Ellen Druebbisch Court 3

Meghan Whalen Court 4

Katelyn Leinbach Court 5

Kristen Taylor Court 6

Kyra was the first off the court, but not in a happy way.  Kyra encountered one of the most complete tennis players the Cowgirls had seen this season.  A Viking freshman with quick turns, explosive power, and a killer serve.  The points were close in each game.  Top down, though the scores seem not so close, the Cowgirls held their own on every court, in almost every point.  Kyra was no exception.  Challenging NW #1 on every return, baseline and drop shot, Kyra played very competently but eventually succumbed to a talented player.

Meghan played up to court 4 in stay of Sam Hamrick who was able to join the Meghan for dubs later in the evening.  To tell you of the depth the Vikings had…Ellen Hogan, #4 for the Vikings was #2 on the NW team last year and lost in conference play to the eventual Conference Singles Champion from EF.  But Meghan didn’t shirk away from the task at hand.  Though eventually falling 2 and 0, Meghan found joy in the pace of the shots and the speed of the play.  She held Hogan back in her play and forced her to hit those crosscourt shots for the point wins.  As a freshman and newby to the top six, Meghan will have many great years with Cowgirls Tennis.

Kristen exited the courts next.  Holding on to three games in play, Kristen demonstrated a much better poise than in earlier play.  She was able to draw her opponent up and lift the ball just above her head causing the NW player to run towards the baseline to recover.  Unfortunately, she did recover and forced Kristen into limited shot selection on her way to victory. 

Ellen and Katelyn took leave of the single courts about the same time.  Ellen fought valiantly in the first, leading initially before losing serve and eventually fell behind one more break in the 1^st set 6-3.  Though landing a number of blows, NW had dialed Ellen’s number in and was able to advance their game and took the second set handily.  Katelyn found favor against a much bigger hitting machine.  Though not as powerful in her play, Katelyn’s consistent shots and limited depth gave cause for concern against her heavy hitting opponent who was forced to cover the ground between the baseline and the net where the ball was hit just rightly so multiply times.  In the successful attempts, Katelyn could draw from her opponent a desperate attempt of a shot which often times went long in these points.  Alas, it wasn’t enough as Katelyn falls ever so gently 3 and 3.

The longest (at near 2 hours in length) match of the evening was brought to us by Mai Vo.  Holding throughout the first save of one lost serve giving her opponent the gift of a service break, Mai rallied back in the second, breaking her NW counterpart twice taking the second set 6-3.  To a Tiebreaker!  With a wicked side spin and an elevated game, NW pulled away to a 6-3 lead (race to 10 points) before Mai was able to regain her playing composure climbing back slowly but ultimately she ran out of time, falling 10-7 in the third.

No, not a win, but nowhere on the courts did we leave any regrets in our play. 

0-6 after singles.

With Sam Hamrick returning for dubs, the Cowgirls brought their dubs line-up as follows:

Vo/Druebbisch court 1

Akande/Gretchen Cross Court 2

Whalen/Sam Hamrick Court 3

NW decided to drop out their top six to give them rest after our Cowgirls brought the heat against them in singles play, but wanting to hone our future conference play dubs team’s play while opportunity allowed, we took to the courts.

Kyra and Gretchen were the first off.  Between the capable net play of both ladies and Krya’s punishing serves, the Lady Vikings could do little to stand in the way of the 8-1 drumming.

Mai and Ellen both found redemption from singles in their 8-3 handling of court 1 of NW.

Whalen and Sam, fighting through a few “never really played with you while playing against a quality opponent,” moments, the two began to play a bit more in step with each other finishing their match off at 8-4.

3-0 SW

3-6 loss to NW

Weidl (NW) over Kyra Akande (SW) 6-0, 6-0

Williams (NW) over Mai Vo (SW) 6-4, 3-6, 10-7

Keating (NW) over Ellen Druebbisch (SW) 6-3, 6-1

Elle Hogan (NW) over Meghan Whalen (SW) 6-2, 6-0

Ganim (NW) over Katelyn Leinbach (SW) 6-3, 6-3

Magyar (NW) over Kristen Taylor (SW) 6-1, 6-2

0-6

Vo/Druebbisch (SW) over L Mangrum/L Maxwell (NW) 8-3

Akande/Gretchen Cross (SW) over Katie Thomas/Emma Taney (NW) 8-1

Whalen/Sam Hamrick (SW) over Gianna Capurso/Annie Li (NW) 8-4

3-0

3-6 loss to NW

Southwest drops to 7-6 overall and 2-2 in the conference.

The Cowgirls play host to HPC – Lady Bison on Monday