Trojans defeat Bearcats

Rival Rock Hill came across town for a non region meeting with the Trojans tonight. The Trojan girls played well and were able to claim a narrow 4-3 win. The win puts us at 2-0 overall for the season.

The first match to complete was Courtney Cox at 5 singles. Courtney stormed out to a early lead and took the first set 6-0. The second set was a little tougher as Courtney battled some correctable errors. She pulled together her game at the end to win 6-4 in the second set.

The second match to finish was the doubles line of Hillary Tindall and Lauren Cox. These 2 played textbook doubles and were able to dominate from beginning to end. They played aggressive and made every effort to close points out with volleys and overheads. It paid off with a 6-0, 6-1 victory.

Maggie Orr cleared the courts next to give us a 3-0 lead with her win at 2 singles. Maggie battled her inconsistencies early in the match. Once she regained her confidence, she took care of business in the second set to win by score of 6-4, 6-0.

Rock Hill's number 1 gave the Bearcats their first point of the night over Chandler Green. Despite the score of 6-2, 6-2, the match was highly entertaining from beginning to end. Long rallies pushed this match to take an hour and 20 minutes to complete. Chandler forced her Bearcat opponent to take chances and play out of her comfort zone to beat her. Despite the loss, Chandler became a better player tonight.

Emily Edwards clinched our win tonight at 4 singles. Emily also stormed out to an early lead and 6-0 first set. The second set got a little tight and the battle was on near the end. Emily proved the better player tonight as she gutted out a 6-4 second set to give us the team win tonight.

And then there was Betsy. All by herself out there after an hour-plus of tennis in the first set alone. Betsy struggled all night keeping the ball in play during long rallies. Despite the errors, she was able to scrap out a first set, 7-5 in a tiebreaker. She fell behind early in the second 1-4 and stayed down to 2-5. She gutted out the next two games before eventually dropping the second set 4-6. The 10 point tiebreak didn't go her way and the Bearcats claimed the line by a final score of 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-5. Match time was 2 hours 18 minutes...quite long for no-ad scoring with a 10-point tiebreak instead of a third set.

Our number 1 doubles team of Maggie and Chandler started strong and secured an early service break. The proset tilted back in Rock Hill's favor as their #1 player asserted herself effectively. I then informed the girls that they were no longer allowed to hit more than 2 shots in a row to the #1 player from Rock Hill or else they were going to run extra at practice. What do you know - it worked. The girls pulled back to 7-7 and forced a tiebreak for the proset. Even though they dropped the tiebreak 5-7, I was proud of their teamwork - even if I had to semi-threaten them:)

We'll travel to Byrnes HS in Duncan, SC on Tuesday after the holiday. The bus will leave at 3:00 from the tennis courts. The girls will all be excused from Northwestern at 2:40 from their 4th block classes. The bus trip is 1 1/2 hours to Byrnes & I urge the girls to get homework done either in advance or on the bus trip. It will be a long night, but it will be worth it to hit up The Beacon in Spartanburg after the match.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, Rock Hill 3

1s: Catherine White (R) def Chandler Green (N) 6-2, 6-2
2s: Maggie Orr (N) def Sarah Hicklin (R) 6-4, 6-0
3s: Natalie Black (R) def Betsy Creech (N) 6-7(5), 6-4, 10-5
4s: Emily Edwards (N) def Katie Ledford (R) 6-0, 6-4
5s: Courtney Cox (N) def Meredith Smith (R) 6-0, 6-4

1d: White/Hicklin (R) def Green/Orr (N) 8-7(5)
2d: Hillary Tindall/Lauren Cox (N) def Kajel Patel/Ashley Wise (R) 6-0, 6-1

Northwestern Claims Opening Win of 2009 Girls Season

We traveled over to South Pointe for our first match of the year. From top to bottom we were consistent in claiming wins at all the lines. South Pointe is a little undermanned this year and only has 5 players on its roster currently. This makes me sad for South Pointe to have such little interest. It also makes me very thankful that I have 18 wonderful tennis families supporting our team.

We are at home tomorrow against Rock Hill. Rock Hill should provide stiffer competition and we need to be ready to play at our best. I look forward to seeing everyone at our first home match tomorrow night.

Go Trojans!

Result: Northwestern 6, South Pointe 0

1s: Chandler Green (N) def Brittany McDaniel 6-0, 6-0
2s: Maggie Orr (N) def Taylor Madsen 6-0, 6-0
3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Karren Jaggers 6-1, 6-1
4s: Emily Edwards (N) def Tati'yana Gladden 6-0, 6-1
5s: Courtney Cox (N) def Kuira Cruz 6-1, 6-0

1d: Hilary Tindall/Lauren Cox (N) def McDaniel/Jaggers 8-3
2d: DNP