Trojans drop close one to Fort Mill

We hosted the Yellow Jackets in a battle for third place in region 3-AAAA. It went about as close as we could have hoped for, but the bounces were not our way today and we didn't get to claim any lines tonight. The loss puts us at 4-5 overall & 2-4 in the region. We are at least in a tie for 4th place in the region standings.

We had hyped this match up pretty well in practice and had a good number of fans show up tonight including many of the boys players. It was great to show off our updated courts now that our windscreens finally arrived.

We had tremendous performances from our reserves tonight and officially took the reserve match by score of 6-1. The youth and depth of our program is definitely something to be excited about.

We're on the road to Gaffney next Tuesday and then to Nation Ford Thursday. The Start time for our Gaffney match had to be pushed up to approximately 4:15 (or whenever we get there & stretch) since Gaffney's courts have no lights and the days are getting shorter. The girls will be excused from 4th block at 2:45pm next Tuesday so the bus can leave by 3:00pm for the hour long drive.

We have to come out for a strong practice Monday so that we can get back on track in the region standings. A win over both Gafffney & Nation Ford could move us back into a tie with Fort Mill for third place, but it will take some luck to claim the 3rd seed out of our region unless we can also upset Clover and Beat York again.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern
Result: Ft Mill 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Morgan Chumney (F) def Chandler Green 6-1, 6-0
2s: Mady Katz (F) def Maggie Orr 6-3, 6-3
3s: Ali Jensen (F) def Betsy Creech 6-4, 4-6, 10-7
4s: Lauren Williams (F) def Courtney Cox 3-6, 6-2, 10-8
5s: Sierra Hoisington (F) def Lauren Cox 7-5, 3-6, 10-8

1d: Chumney/Katz (F) def Green/Orr 8-1
2d: Dori Wilson/Persephone McCullough (F) def Emily Edwards/Hillary Tindall 6-2, 7-6

Region Records: Ft Mill 4-2, Northwestern 2-4

Reserve Box Score:

Northwestern 6, Ft Mill 1

1s: Addie Brown (F) def Erin Brooks 8-6
2s: MC Faulkner (N) def Ashlee Chumney 8-6
3s: Olivia Huckabee (N) def Katie Wilbanks 8-6
4s: Alexis Peddy (N) def Martha Scott Alford 8-2
5s: Caroline Herron (N) def Kendall Wright 8-4

1d: Karlee Fox/Randi Honeycutt (N) def Laina Tuckleberry/Christine Vallereck 8-6
2d: Emily Cramer/Hannah Cramer (N) def Addie Brown/Ashlee Chumney 8-3

Schedule Change

First off, I don't want to detract from tomorrow's match vs. Fort Mill. However, I know that Beta Club announced they are doing the induction ceremony Wed 10/7 & that involves about 80% of our roster.

We will have a late practice next Wednesday from 5:00-7:00 so that we can get in a good practice before traveling to Nation Ford Thursday.

I have changed our match with South Pointe to Monday 10/19 @ 5:00. This match will be special for a couple reasons:

1) Senior Night - We will recognize the seniors before the match & all seniors are going to be put into the varsity lineup for this match regardless of current ladder standing.

2) Senior Night Celebration - I have booked us to do a recognition dinner/fundraiser at Donato's Pizza on Herlong. We will receive 15% of the revenues from Donatos between 7:30pm-10:30pm. We will need some players and/or parents to assist with food running to the tables, but it will be worth it as I hope we can raise significant amounts of money to help our program.

Spread the word about the celebration afterwards. The more food and drinks that Donatos sells, the more money we will get back afterwards. Rock Hill's football team did this same event last Friday and the restaurant donated $450 to them.

Go Trojans!

Trojans Get Back in Win Column

York brought a great group of kids over tonight to battle us in a region match up. Overall, we played really well from top to bottom both varsity and reserves. The 6 to 0 win tonight pushes our record back to .500 at 4-4 and we are sitting alone in 4th place in the region at 2-3. The Fort Mill match Thursday will be a big opportunity for us to try to climb into a tie with them for 3rd place as I am sure they are 3-2 right now after playing at Gaffney tonight.

Maggie Orr gave us our first line win tonight at 2 singles. She nearly posted a straight shutout as she finished off Neely from York in about 40 minutes by score of 6-0, 6-1.

Chandler Green provided the second win tonight at 1 singles. 8th grader Goss of York will be quite a good player in the future, but Chandler never let her get into a rhythm and took the match by score of 6-2, 6-0.

Our third win came off Courtney Cox's racket at 4 singles. She played a familiar foe, Whitesides from York, whom she had played last year in doubles. Courtney served really strong tonight and limited her errors in the end to finish out really strong 6-3, 6-1...I believe that I called that Mrs. Cox!

Our victory was sealed when our decisive 4th line win was secured by our doubles team of Emily Edwards & Hillary Tindall. I mixed up our doubles this week to get Emily playing a more aggressive style and Hillary seemed the right partner for her. I was right for today as the girls started strong and held off a late charge from Webb & Rogers of York to seal our victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win.

Lauren Cox played 5 for us tonight in our new lineup. This was Lauren's first varsity singles match of her young career and she made us all proud., Her opponent, Shirley, could hit hard through the ball and mix up some different shots. Lauren overcame some early nerves to hold strong in the end for a 6-4, 6-3 W.

Betsy Creech has been battling through some elbow pain recently and had me a little nervous of being able to finish tonight. She struggled early against a pretty quick York opponent in Patrick. The first set went into a long tiebreak in which Betsy came back, saved a set point at 5-6 and won by score of 9-7. Once that set was done with, Betsy really seemed to feel more comfortable and cruised to the end with a second set win by score of 6-1.

I'm sure everyone got a good chuckle out of the old guys trying to play some mixed doubles tonight with our players. I had a blast trying to keep up with Coach Clark of York (who played college tennis at Eastern Washington University), but unfortunately Maggie & I dropped a really fun proset 4-8.

Our reserve action was slanted heavily in favor of the Trojans tonight. We actually ended up getting a full reserve match in and the results were as follows:

1s: Erin Brooks (pictured) W 8-2, 2s: MC Faulkner W 8-1, 3s: Olivia Huckabee W 8-1, 4s: Alexis Peddy W 8-0, 5s: Caroline Herron W 8-0, 1d: Karlee Fox & Randi Honeycutt W 8-0, 2d: Emily Cramer/Natalie Hageman L7-9, 6s: Hannah Cramer W 8-0.

The official reserve match would be a 6-1 win in our favor.

Thursday is a big match and we need every girl ready to play and cheer to the best of their ability. Fort Mill will come strong at us and we cannot afford to back down. We have the ability to be successful, but it will only happen if everyone gives it their best.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 6, York 0

1s: Chandler Green (N) def Mary Goss 6-2, 6-0
2s: Maggie Orr (N) def Brandi Neely 6-0, 6-1
3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Katia Patrick 7-6(7), 6-1
4s: Courtney Cox (N) def Hannah Whitesides 6-3, 6-1
5s: Lauren Cox (N) def Kate Shirley 6-4, 6-3

1d: DNP
2d: Emily Edwards/Hillary Tindall (N) def Sarah Webb/Allison Rogers 6-1, 6-3

Records: Northwestern 4-4, 2-3 Region 3AAAA, York 4-5, 0-5 Region 3AAAA