Sept 24 Home v Mt Tabor

It was a great night of tennis.

No, we didn’t win.

Yes, that would have been amazing.

But the ladies played beautifully tonight.

Having lost 2-7 last round, I wasn’t sure if we had the depth to better that score.  Christina replaced Meghan at #1/2. Gretchen swapped with Annie for 3/4 . Lanie and Lauren stayed in place for 5/6 .  

Knowing how tough Mt Tabor was at the top (in reality - they are tough all up and down their line-up), I was not expecting a miracle.  But I did receive a lovely gift for my patience.

Top three, Christina, Meghan, Gretchen….all ran into a wall.  With only three games earned between them all, it will be said they played excellent tennis...but their opponents simply took that level of play and raised stakes that we could not cover.  

Kudos to their top three.

Courts 4,5, and 6 were our opportunity courts.

Lauren had beaten her opponent last time on Court 6.  With the change up of Annie down, gretchen up, and Lanie having lost last time 3 and 4...I really didn’t know what to expect.

Lauren played conservative at first...but began to press her advantage of consistency.  Extending her lead, she took the first set. Her opponent visibly shaken, she came out swinging in the 2nd.  But Lauren held tight to her guns (figurative...no guns were used in the course of the evening). She drew her opponent into longer rallies...ones where Lauren would excel.  She became a wall and pushed her opponent into committing mistakes. Lauren Wins 6-2, 6-3.

Annie’s style of play is both beautiful and perplexing.  She has all of the elements, but her stroke is unconventional, but the points count the same.  Annie played against a very talented Valerie Zhang...a force no matter what position she played.  From the get go, Annie pressed into every point. Understand Annie doesn’t blitz players off the court, rather she hits her mark, paints the lines, and keeps her opponents running and guessing.  She took Ms Zhang by surprise. 5-1, 5-2, 5-3, 6-3 to finish the first set. To add another element of understanding about Annie’s game, it isn’t the hardest serve I have ever received, but together we built her serve deep and out wide on both sides, allowing for an awkward return...one that Annie could take advantage of by moving in.  It worked. It continued to work. Annie wins 6-3, 6-3.

Two wins doesn’t make a victory.  We needed a third to stay in the match.  Enter in Lanie Van Dorp.

Lanie has really begun to hit out over these last two weeks.  Bigger, deeper, but still pin point on her marks...left and right, add in short and pushing deep once more...if she can hang with you, she has almost won the match from the start.

And so it began.  Losing last time 3 and 4, Lanie had something to prove...but I told her, keep it consistent, hit those deep corners...play your game.  And she did.

1-2

2-2

3-2

4-2

5-2 (You can just feel the desperation of her opponent as this match...one she won without too much difficulty last time, begins to ebb away)

6-2 - Lanie

Second Set

1-2

1-3

2-3

3-3  (You can almost que “Here we go again ‘87 - Whitesnake)

4-3

5-3

6-3  

Hats off to both Annie and Lanie for playing some of the best tennis of their career tonight to bring the Cowgirls even with Mt Tabor going into dubs.

Just so you don’t immediately begin cueing up Eye of the Tiger, those were the only 3 victories of the night.

Keeping their line-up in for dubs, they beat us at 1, 2, and 3.  Court three was fun. It went on forever. We finally left the court closer to 8:30 tonight.  We were up, fell behind, went up, fell behind, I SEE A TREND! The Cowgirls ended up trading lead 5 times...unable to focus any longer on incredible and long play, we didn’t convert a break and went down 6-8 on court 3.

Though we lost 3-6, we had a sniff at 4-5...which was a far better position that the 2-7 drumming we had at the hands of MT tabor last time. We are getting close...and it will be epic when it lands.

It was a great night of tennis.

No, we didn’t win.

Yes, that would have been amazing.

But the ladies played beautifully tonight.

Sept 24, 2018

Alex Bowen (MT) over Christina Alentino (SW) 6-1, 6-0

Anna Albertini (MT) over Meghan Whalen (SW) 6-2, 6-0

Abby Williams (SW) over Gretchen Cross (SW) 6-0, 6-0

Annie Bodin (SW) over Valerie Zhang (MT) 6-3, 6-3

Lanie Van Dorp (SW) over Meg Salt (MT) 6-2, 6-3

Lauren Cook (SW) over Mony Madan (MT) 6-2, 6-3

After singles 3-3

Dubs

Bowen/Zhang (MT) over Whalen/Cross (SW) 8-2

Albertini/Williams (MT) over Bodin/Cook (SW) 8-1

Meg Salt/Rebecca Pollard (MT) Over Van Dorp /Lydia Specht (SW) 8-6

Mt Tabor over Cowgirls 6-3

The Cowgirls fall to 14-2 on the season and 3-2 in conference play.

Unfortunately, we conceded first place in conference to Mt Tabor in Women’s tennis for the season.  

The Cowgirls have 4 more matches to finish.

We should have a good enough record to qualify for Dual Team mid October.

We continue to prepare for the Conference tournament Oct 9-10.