Aug 28, 2017

Cowgirls hosting Mt Tabor Women’s tennis in conference action

I believe the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh (Bear) said it best as describing the weather…”It was a rather blustery day.”

And that it was.  Thanks to the system off the coast, wind was a factor throughout play.

The Line up for the evening features Mai, Kyra, Sam, Meghan, Lanie, Katelyn in descending order and from the get go, Mt Tabor was a force to reckon with tonight.  We are blessed in having a 1/2, a 3/4, and a 5/6.  Mt Tabor had a 1, 2-5, and a 6.  We were in for an uphill climb.

Mai was off the courts first.  Unfortunately, her opponent was a beast.  Though good in serve, it was her play that really set her apart.  Mai held on individual points, but the punishing angles and depth took Mai by surprise until she succumbed to solid play 1 and 3.

Meghan and Sam faced the same result.  Again, their 2-5 played almost at the same level as each other.  Their pace of play, the depth of shot, their control of the ball shook our confidence a bit, and though each court mounted small rebellions for two and three points at a time, it wasn’t enough to swing the pendulum in the Cowgirls favor.  Sam goes down 2 and 2, Meghan 1 and 1.

Lanie played up on Court #5 tonight.  Her unconventional style and varied hitting kept her opponent off balance, but not enough to stave off a loss.  Lanie goes down 4 and 3.

Taking the first set 6-3 and 6-4 respectively, Kyra and Katelyn proved to be bright spots in singles play.  Both would finish out their matches with a win.

Cowboys down 2-4 in singles to Mt Tabor.

Understand the race is to 5 wins – either in single or a combo of singles and dubs.  With the Cowgirls with only two wins in their column, we had to sweep dubs to win the match.

Kyra and Mai began play at #1.  Down 1-2 to start the match, Kyra and Mai began working as a unit and not individuals.  The next look down at their court the score had blossomed to 6-3, now 7-4, and to conclude the match, Kyra held serve to take the 1^st win in dubs 8-4.

Sam and Whalen traded serves with their opponents the first few games.  Net play was a highlight as were a good number of the return winners.  Hiccupping for 3 games mid match, the Cowgirls righted the ship and pushed onward to victory, 8-6.

Tied now 4-4, all attention went to Dubs #3 – Lanie and Gretchen Cross.  Understand dubs is played with two people each side.  The goal is to hit to the weaker of the two players while keeping it away from the stronger player.  Problems for our antagonists arise when shots don’t fly where they are intended.  Battling against a deep and hard hitting team put our two heros on the defensive from the first point.  Unable to place shots effectively, but still scoring small wins in points and two service games, the Cowgirls efforts were not enough as Mt Tabor wins on court 3, crushing the Cowgirls quest to remain unbeaten on the season. 

Singles:

Anna Albertini (MT) over Mai Vo (SW) 6-1, 6-3

Kyra Akande (SW) over Abby Williams (MT) 6-3, 7-5

Sarah Willy Luke (MT) over Sam Hamrick (SW) 6-2, 6-2

Lexi Starets (MT) over Meghan Whalen (SW) 6-1, 6-1

Valerie Zhang (MT) over Lanie Van Dorp (SW) 6-4, 6-3

Katelyn Leinbach (SW) over Rachel Crumpler (MT) 6-4, 6-0

4-2 Mt Tabor

Dubs:

Vo/Akande (SW) over Wells-Luke/Starets (MT) 8-4

Hamrick/Whalen (SW) over Albertini/Sarah Beth Nichols(MT) 8-6

Zhang/Crumpler (MT) over Van Dorp/Gretchen Cross (SW) 8-3

2-1 Cowgirls

4-5 final score….Mt Tabor over the Cowgirls

Mt Tabor draws even on the year 1-1, now 1-0 in conference play.

Cowgirls drop 1-1 in conference and 6-1 overall.

Cowgirls travel to Southeast tomorrow for a non-conference match.