Trojans Win City Battle in Region Victory over Rock Hill High

Rock Hill High welcomed us over to their courts in about the most wonderful way I have ever been a part of as a high school tennis coach. Their parents went all out in providing our girls with snacks and drinks after our matches & their new coach had out a speaker system to play pre & post match music and we made the introductions over public address. Their courts were also upgraded with a new scoring system & court numbers. I would be willing to bet that they have windscreens with logos by this time next year...

Overall, we played pretty well in some windy conditions tonight. I don't think that we played consistantly well from start to finish for the entire match. Some of the ups and downs that we allowed to happen tonight, and Tuesday against Clover, will bite us against our region opponents. We still have a shot at reaching our goal of finishing in the top 3 of our region, but we can't do it if we either start or end matches slow. We need to put our best effort onto the courts from the first point to the last every single time out.

Karlee Fox played #5 singles tonight for us and was the most dominant performance of the night for the Trojans. She gave us our first victory of the night with a score of 6-2, 6-0. Serving was clearly the difference as Karlee controlled her service games with pace and accuracy all night.

Alexis Peddy played #3 singles tonight and proved too steady for her Bearcat opponent. After a fairly close first set, Alexis really took control of the points and ran away with the match in the second set.

The Bearcats then got on the board with a win at #1 singles. White from Rock Hill High is one of the top players in the state right now and looked like it tonight. Maggie Orr played many balls to her that normally end up points for us, yet White was simply too good and not only got them back but placed them in tough spots for us to win the points from. I hate that the score looks the way it does as I know that Maggie is way too good of a player to lose to anyone in the state of South Carolina 0 & 0.

Lauren Cox then clinched the match for us at #4 singles. The wind played some havoc on Lauren's groundstrokes in the first set, but she still hung on for a 7-5 first set win. Once she was adjusted and the winds calmed down, it was clear that she was the stronger player and she cleaned up in the second set 6-1.

Our doubles team of Erin Brooks and Emily Edwards were the last to finish tonight. They fell behind early 0-3 in the first set against two quick, little athletes for the Bearcats. The rest of the set played out even as the Cats took the set 6-3. Our girls gathered themselves in the second set and took it fairly handedly 6-2. To the 10-point tiebreaker it went to decide the match.

In high school tennis, I am only allowed to provide coaching before a match tiebreaker begins. After watching the second set play out, I made a decision to just let the doubles team go and said nothing to them as I felt they were in control of the match. I kicked myself after we dropped the tiebreak 10-5 to the Cats as I had nearly provided some basic advice that may have made a difference in the outcome. I take the blame in that loss.

We remain on the road next Tuesday as we head over to Lancaster to take on the Bruins at the USC-L courts. Lancaster knocked us out of the playoffs last year in a close match that I hope our girls will be out for revenge in. A win over Lancaster could go a long way in determining where we finish in our region.

Go Trojans!

Location: Rock Hill High
Result: Northwestern 4, Rock Hill 2

1s: Catherine White (R) def Maggie Orr 6-0, 6-0
2s: Betsy Creech def Natalie Black 6-1, 6-3
3s: Alexis Peddy def Katie Ledford 6-3, 6-1
4s: Lauren Cox def Meredith Smith 7-5, 6-1
5s: Karlee Fox def Barron Hicklin 6-2, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Sarah Hicklin/Helen Revel (R) def Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks 6-3, 2-6, 10-5

Clover hands Lady Trojans Region Loss

We got off on the wrong foot tonight as we opened the region slate against Clover. In all my time at Northwestern, I've never had a team play well at their courts. Unfortunately, tonight was more of the same. We had some matchups in place that I felt should have been an advantage to us, but we didn't capitalize on them. The loss puts us at 4-4 overall and 0-1 in Region 3-AAAA.

Betsy Creech continued to shine for us at her #3 spot tonight. Playing against a player that was not fun to play against and an imposing parent of the other team watching every line call, Betsy really stepped up and rose above all the nonsense thrown her way. She seems to have fallen in love with 6-3, 6-3 results this season. I'll take that over tiebreaker matches any day!

We travel to Rock Hill Thursday. Nuff said there.

Go Trojans!


Location: Clover HS
Result: Clover 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Kate Stewart def Maggie Orr 6-2, 6-2
2s: Molly Miszkiewicz def Chandler Green 6-1, 6-1
3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Anna Miszkiewicz 6-3, 6-3
4s: Caroline Hester def Alexis Peddy 6-2, 6-0
5s: Harriet Hall def Lauren Cox 6-1, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Elizabeth Edmunds/Corey Broom def Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks 4-6, 6-1, 10-2