Aug 21, 2017

Southwest Cowgirls Tennis traveling to Conference rival Lady Eagles of Smith

An eclipse.  Clouds.  A slight wind.  All opening up to bright sunshine and a small breeze.  Today was a good day for tennis.

The match was the Cowgirls first Conference match of the season and in fact, of their entry into the Piedmont Triad 3-A conference.  With only 4 teams representing from the conference in Women’s tennis, the countdown began for 6 victories of the conference rivals.  If this can be done, we will secure the title and glory of Conference Champs.

The match began.

Losing our number 1 seed to an illness today, everybody shifted up.  Kyra, Sam, Meghan, Katelyn, Lanie, Gretchen – today’s top 6.

Warm up in progress, I began to better understand the opportunities and challenges the girls would face on the courts today.  The Lady Eagles had only 4 girls who have played before with two others rounding out their top six being rather green.  Their top 2 had punishing play, their #3 occasional greatness, but I knew within a few points of the start we had them left to right on the bottom three courts.

Katelyn busted out of the gate, easily handing her opponent 0 and 0 and in fact, setting the quickest match time of 33 minutes to complete this rout of the Lady Eagle’s player.  This in fact was quicker than the time posted by Lanie just last week for a pro-8.  Way to Go Katelyn!

Lanie followed soon thereafter.  Once more, a score of double doughnuts.  Gretchen arrived a bit later with the same score.  Gretchen, to her credit, did not allow a single point scored against her during her first set.

A sidebar with the audience:  Do not think me cold by playing nearly full up against any team.  In conference, you play a full line-up and adjust the next time you play – thus allowing the other players and coach(es) an opportunity to see your talent.  This makes it easier in seeding the ladies for conference play in October.

Meghan, playing up a spot, had little issue in dispatching her opponent double doughnut sticks (1 and 1).  To her credit, the Lady Eagle played a smart game, pushing Meghan back and around a bit before the consistency of Meghan overcame her opponent’s fire.

Sam was the only one who hit a wall and wasn’t able to overcome said wall.  Though her score was 1–6, 4-6, it will be said Sam played a beautiful second set.  She lifted her shots, hit her corners, returned deep, and kept the ball in play, greatly disrupting her opponent’s flow and shot cadence.  Sam’s play was a moral victory in my book.  She simply ran against a more complete player, but with a bit more work, I can definitely see Sam edging her even more on a shot by shot basis.

Kyra had the longest match of the day.  As the rest of the ladies completed their matches, Kyra and her Lady Eagle opposite were just finishing their first set – Kyra won the 1^st.  And to let the audience know, after the eclipse and no apocalypse, the sun came out and it was getting almost hot on the courts.  Expending such energy in the first set, Kyra lost her focus.  Shots went wide, long, and hard into the net.  To her credit, the Lady Eagle was moving well, getting to the shots Kyra punished across the net and even hit great angles.  Kyra lifted slightly at 2-4, but was unable to stop the Lady Eagles from taking the second set.  Tied now 1-1 in sets, to a tiebreaker we went.

The Lady Eagle had momentum going into the tiebreaker, but Kyra’s clarity came sharply back to her as she took a 5-1 lead at the first changeover.  Never looking back, Kyra finished out the tiebreak while only giving her opponent 2 points as her consolation.

Singles, 5-1 Cowgirls

The bulk of the battle over, the Cowgirls played deep, allowing 8/9 Abby Lowe and Johaina Apolinario the opportunity to play #1 dubs, Alethea Yu and Lauren Cook (11 and 12) to play #2 dubs and first time to the Varsity court Morgan McGuire and Kirsten Blunder (14 & 17) to dubs #3.

Having begun before Kyra’s near epic match concluded, Morgan and Kirsten had little trouble playing against relative newbies on the Lady Eagle’s team.  Working through several shot selections, the two Cowgirls won 8-0 and in turn, earned their first varsity win of the season.

Alethea and Lauren, dubs #2, had partnered up with each other last week v Southeast.  Having taken out their Lady Falcon’s opponents 6-2, I saw little issue in their ability to perform well against the Lady Eagles.  They did not disappoint.  On serve through the first three games, the Cowgirls broke twice in the following games to win 8-3.  The Cowgirls showed good court presence and shot selection, lifting and pushing their opponents back into the corners where the Eagle’s defensive shots had little strength and became fodder for the Cowgirls.

Not to discount the play from the other ladies tonight, it must be said I was pleasantly surprised on court #1 from the efforts of Abby and Johaina.  Their opponents were the #1/2 singles.  These were the same ladies that took Kyra to a third set and had earned a victory against Sam, but apparently Abby and Johaina were not listening.  Going out strong, the Cowgirls held to their serve, deep returns crosscourt, and unorthodox net play and were up 3-2 before giving up a break.  Down 3-4, the Cowgirls continued their play, looping it up and over and rallying strong to hold serve throughout the rest of the match before falling 6-8.  I can’t tell you how big of a grin I had on my face in light of their play against a very tough team.  Think Chesshire (the cat, not the cheese) and you will be on the right track.  With a few better placed shots I truly think these tow Cowgirls could have toppled the 1/2.  I guess we will need to wait until next time to test this theory.

Dubs 2-1 Cowgirls

Cowgirls win 7-2 v Lady Eagles of Smith

Singles:

Kyra Akande (SW) over Leah Bullard (S) 6-4, 2-6, 7-1

Bria Smith (S) over Sam Hamrick (SW) 6-1, 6-4

Meghan Whalen (SW) over Pich Him (S) 6-1, 6-1

Katelyn Leinbach (SW) over Ruth Rodriguez (S) 6-0, 6-0

Lanie Van Dorp (SW) over Anastacia Malloy (S) 6-0, 6-0

Gretchen Cross (SW) over Anisha Lawrence (S) 6-0, 6-0

Dubs:

Bullard/Smith (S) over Abby Lowe/Johaina Apolinario (SW) 8-6

Alethea Yu/Lauren Cook (SW) over Him/Rodriguez (S) 8-3

Morgan McGuire/Kirsten Blunder (SW) over Malloy/Aliyah Johnson (S) 8-0

7-2 Cowboys

Smith falls to 0-2 on the season, 0-1 in conference play.

Cowboys continue to post wins, now 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.

The Cowboys travel to Tiger Country Tuesday hoping to repeat the victorious outcome from last.