Northwestern High School Tennis

SEE northwesterntrojans.org

2010-09-29T11:03:00.001-04:00

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Bruins down Lady Trojans

2010-09-21T20:39:00.003-04:00

The trip over to Lancaster taught me some things about our team tonight. Even in defeat, we had players step up to the challenge against a traditional power in local girls high school tennis.
The 1-5 defeat drops our overall record to 5-5 and our region mark is now 1-2. We still have to host Gaffney Thursday and travel over to Spartanburg next Tuesday to complete our first round of region matches.

Maggie Orr continued to play well at #1, despite unfavorable results against another top-20 ranked player in the state of South Carolina. I feel for Maggie in the results that she is seeing for her effort. She still plays every point as hard as she can and forces her opponents to beat her, rather than make unforced errors. I cannot ask for more than that.

Betsy Creech continued her hot streak tonight, playing up a spot and filling in at #2. She fell behind early before mounting a huge comeback in the first set to take it 7-5. She went out to a big lead in the second set and the end of it played fairly even as she closed it out 6-3 for our lone win tonight. Betsy's play is the example I want others to follow. She played up & challenged herself to play at a high level. She executed and secured a very satisfying win for herself.

Alexis Peddy played a fellow senior from Lancaster that has played all top-3 spots for the Bruins over the past 6 years. For a player with Alexis's one year of experience and some change, I knew she could be outgunned in the match. Gardner played very smart tennis and was too much for us at #3 tonight. Credit goes to the Lancaster opponent as she was just really good tonight.

Lauren Cox's match at #4 can best be described as a roller coaster by me. At times, Lauren played great tennis and other times she just fell apart and made too many unforced errors at bad times. The score is more lopsided than the talent level would suggest as Lancaster took the match 6-1, 6-2.

Karlee Fox filled the #5 spot as well as I could have asked. Playing a senior that has played singles lines at Lancaster her entire career, Karlee went ahead at times, and then fell back. Her hot start was countered by a player that just seemed to get better as the match went on.

Lancaster made a decision to split their two chosen singles players for doubles action tonight, rather than play them together at #1. Therefore, they made a call to pair up their #1 & #6 at 1st doubles and their #3 with their #7 at 2nd doubles. I kept our pair of Emily Edwards and Erin Brooks together to compete at 2nd doubles. It just was too much to overcome the Bruins strong play tonight as we dropped that line.

As the season goes on, we can beat this level of opponent. We must raise the level of our tennis in practice and play at a higher level in matches.

Go Trojans!

Location: UCS-Lancaster
Result: Lancaster 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Lyndsey Hegler def Maggie Orr 6-1, 6-1
2s: Betsy Creech (N) def Sarah Hicks 7-5, 6-4
3s: Morgan Gardner def Alexis Peddy 6-0, 6-1
4s: Carley Adams def Lauren Cox 6-1, 6-2
5s: Sarah Gilreath def Karlee Fox 7-5, 6-3

1d: DNP
2d: Morgan Gardner/McKenzie Blanton def Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks 6-0, 6-0

Trojans Win City Battle in Region Victory over Rock Hill High

2010-09-16T20:17:00.003-04:00

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

2010-09-14T20:34:00.003-04:00

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

Trojans Defeat Stallions in Cross Town Rivalry Match

2010-09-09T19:32:00.004-04:00

Playing without the services of our top two players, the Lady Trojans played very well tonight as they handed the Stallions of South Pointe a loss in a rivalry match. While we didn't complete the sweep tonight, we came as close as we can without doing so. The win improves our overall record to 4-3 on the season as we get ready to start our region matches next Tuesday and Thursday at Clover and Rock Hill High respectively.

I was extremely proud of Betsy Creech and Lauren Cox tonight who filled in at #1 & #2 singles. This marked the highest that either girl has ever played in the Trojan lineup and they had their hands full with two talented players from South Pointe. Betsy secured a win at #1 6-3, 6-3.

Lauren took advantage of several early errors by her Stallion opponent at #2 and took the first set 6-0. I made sure to let Lauren know to not anticipate those errors to continue as I have seen this player get hot before. She certainly did tonight as she claimed the second set from us 2-6. The tiebreaker was knotted at 6-6 through the second changeover and played even until the end when South Pointe took the #2 line 9-11 in the match tiebreak.

From #3 through #2 doubles, we only dropped a total of 5 games in the four matches. I preached to the girls before the match that they shouldn't be concerned if they are playing higher than they are used to and that I am still trying to figure out what our strongest lineup is as we head into region matches next week. Well, they didn't make it any easier on me as they all played good tennis and took advantage of playing opportunities at a higher spot.

Challenges tommorrow and a practice on Monday are all that we have left to prepare for Clover and Rock Hill High next week. If we make the most of these two opportunities to get better, we should find success in those two matches. If we don't, we will struggle against these two formidable opponents.

Go Trojans!

Location: South Pointe HS
Result: Northwestern 5, South Pointe 1

1s: Betsy Creech def Shelly Restificar 6-3, 6-3
2s: Lieren Monteith (S) def Lauren Cox 0-6, 6-2, 11-9
3s: Alexis Peddy def Brittany McDaniel 6-0, 6-0
4s: Karlee Fox def Kuira Cruz 6-0, 6-0
5s: Courtney Cox def Tatiyana Gladden 6-1, 6-2

2d: Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks def Timistry Nelson/Taylor Madsen 6-1, 6-1
Records: Northwestern 4-3, South Pointe 0-2

Trojans Defeated by Nation Ford

2010-09-08T21:06:00.002-04:00

We traveled up I-77 to take on the Falcons of Nation Ford. We were able to claim 1 out of the initial 6 varsity lines, but fell short in the other 5 matches to drop the non-region contest. The loss drops us to 2-3 overall and we have one remaining non-region contest before we start plowing through the region 3-AAAA schedule.

Tommorrow, we will venture over to South Pointe. The Stallions had a small roster last year that has increased by at least one that I am aware of. I have not confirmed how many players that South Pointe will have available for a JV match, but I anticipate that our reserves will likely play challenge matches against each other.

Go Trojans!

Location: Nation Ford
Result: Nation Ford 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Ashley Trull def Maggie Orr 6-2, 6-3
2s: Jordan Bowers def Chandler Green 7-5, 6-3
3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Suzanna Goss 7-6, 0-6, 10-8
4s: Melanie Mullen def Alexis Peddy 6-1, 6-4
5s: Riley Smith def Karlee Fox 6-1, 7-5

2d: Olivia Whitener/Morgan Jasper def Courtney Cox/Lauren Cox 7-5, 6-4

Trojans Claim Second Straight Match Over Byrnes

2010-09-02T20:04:00.004-04:00

Another warm night at Northwestern and another victory for the Lady Trojans tonight. The girls got a little revenge for a match that we dropped last season at Byrnes. We again played down a player at the top, but made up for it with depth at the bottom.

The first match to finish was Courtney Cox tonight at #5 singles. To me, it looked like Courtney was looking in the mirror at herself as she played a girl with a very similar style who was simply just left handed. Courtney played the game better and claimed our first win 6-2, 6-2.

The doubles team of Emily Edwards and Erin Brooks was the next to finish. I can best describe this match as one in which the Trojan girls improved as the match wore on. The first set result was closer than I thought it would be after seeing it in the early going. Erin & Emily then took off in the second set to put us ahead overall 2 matches to none.

Lauren Cox played strong tennis tonight at #3 singles against a quality opponent. Lauren's return of serve was the key for her tonight as she was able to go on the offensive early in points and broke her opponent's serve several times. The score seemed closer than the match played out as Lauren won 6-4, 6-4.

Maggie Orr re-entered the lineup tonight after sitting out the last few matches with a sore shoulder. I knew that Maggie had it in her to be the better player, but would have to overcome some rust to take out Byrnes #1 player as she hadn't hit anything overhand in a couple weeks. The first set was really close until the end when Byrnes took it. The second set didn't play as even when Byrnes gained confidence from the first set.

As we lead the overall match 3-1, two matches went to tiebreakers. Betsy Creech had dropped her first set6-1 at #2 while Alexis Peddy had dropped hers in a set tiebreaker. Both girls went on to win their second sets by 6-4 margins. Betsy was the first match tiebreak to finish and dropped it 7-10. Alexis remained the sole player on the front courts for us and clinched the overall team win by a 10-7 margin on her birthday.

With the match decided, we didn't pair up a traditional #1 doubles team and instead are just referring to Emily & Erin as tonight's #1 double pair. Karlee Fox & Caroline Herron will get credited with the #2 doubles match after they were able to claim a win 6-2, 6-0.

Most of the girls are ready for the holiday weekend and need some time to let their bodies recover. While I hope they are active over the weekend, I also ask that they be smart in choosing what kind of activities they participate in. Being on a boat sounds like a good time, but maybe being the person on the wakeboard or tube wouldn't be the best idea.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern HS
Result: Northwestern 5, Byrnes 2

1s: Celena Sneddy (B) def Maggie Orr 6-4, 6-1
2s: Jessica Wang (B) def Betsy Creech 6-1, 4-6, 10-7
3s: Lauren Cox def Saige Allison 6-4, 6-4
4s: Alexis Peddy def Kylie Birch 6-7, 6-4, 10-7
5s: Courtney Cox def MK Flynn 6-2, 6-2

1d: Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks def Arkeia Drummond/Allyson Hollis 6-4, 6-1
2d: Karlee Fox/Caroline Herron def Zee Jah/Brandi Geter 6-2, 6-0

Trojans defeat York

2010-08-31T20:02:00.005-04:00

The fall regular season was kicked off with a Trojan victory at our home courts tonight. The match played out a little closer than expected due to some unforeseen circumstances. In the end, we claimed 4 matches to York's 2 and now stand at 2-2 overall after our tournament results last weekend.

The doubles team of Courtney Cox and Lauren Cox posted a complete shutout of the York doubles team tonight. I am very confident in these two girl's ability to play doubles and win a lot of matches for us this year. They showed me tonight that they can put away an opponent and not let them in the match at any point. That is precisely what I wanted to see.

Emily Edwards filled in at #5 singles tonight and claimed our second overall team win. After blitzing ahead to a 5-0 first set lead, the York #5 took advantage of some errors & grabbed two games before Emily finished the set 6-2. Emily played nearly error free in the 2nd set & shut out her opponent to claim our third line win.

At this point, we lead 3-0 and had matches still being played at #1, #3, and #4 singles. Chandler Green had won her first set 6-3 @ #1 and Karlee Fox had won her first set in a tiebreaker. Alexis Peddy had gone to a set tiebreaker as well, but came out on the losing end.

Unfortunately, we had to concede line #1 as Chandler couldn't continue to play. Fortunately for the Trojans, Karlee came alive in set #2 and shutout York's #4 in the second set to give us the overall team victory.

I told the girls after our match that Byrnes will be a little late getting to us on Thursday & our match likely won't begin until 5:30. Seeing as the weather forecast is nearly the same as tonight, I am going to make an adjustment to our warm up routine and shorten it so we don't spend too much time in the heat before our match begins. Therefore, Thursday's schedule is:

4:45 Snack - in shade under trees
5:00 On court warm up
5:15 Clear courts
5:30 Introductions / Begin play

Hopefully, this will allow us to play at a high level without the effects of the heat as we felt today.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, York 2

1s: Michelle Goss (Y) def Chandler Green 3-6, 3-2 ret(ill)
2s: Betsy Creech def Brandi Neely 6-2, 6-1
3s: Mary Goss (Y) def Alexis Peddy 7-6, 3-6, 10-1
4s: Karlee Fox def Katia Patrick 7-6, 6-0
5s: Emily Edwards def Samantha Roush 6-2, 6-0

2d: Courtney Cox/Lauren Cox def Kate Shirley/Sarah Webb 6-0, 6-0

Border Challenge Day 2

2010-08-28T21:34:00.005-04:00

Well, it was a good day for Northwestern. The football team was able to defeat South Pointe in the late afternoon. Unfortunately, the girls tennis team had a different experience in the morning and early afternoon results. We dropped two matches at the hands of a powerful Marvin Ridge squad & a formidable Butler team.

While dissapointed in how the scoreboard looks, I am keeping in perspective that we played split lineups all through the tournament while we were without Maggie Orr at the top of our lineup. We probably would not have been able to overcome Marvin Ridge this morning with a full strength lineup, but I am curious as to whether we could have beat Butler. Regardless, it was good to get players like Betsy Creech & Alexis Peddy some experience playing at a higher position than they are used to. In the long run, I foresee this weekend was a positive thing for us.

We'll get back to practice next week in preparation of home matches on Tuesday and Thursday against York and Byrnes respectfully.

Go Trojans!

2010 SC v NC Border Challenge
Location: Northwestern HS, Rock Hill SC

Friday Results:

Match #1 Northwestern 6, Piedmont 0
Match #2 Marvin Ridge 6, Fort Mill 0
Match #3 Nation Ford v. Butler - Suspended, inclement weather

Saturday Results:

Match #3
Nation Ford 4, Butler 2
1s: Hollie Champion (B) def Jordan Bowers 6-1, 6-0
2s: Emily Larkin (B) def Ashley Trull 6-1, 6-3
3s: Rylee Smith def Kelly Russell 6-4, 6-1
4s: Suzanna Goss def Emery Carlough 6-2, 6-1
5s: Melanie Mullen def Callie Strachan 6-3, 6-2

2d: Olivia Whitener/Kendall Lucas def Alaina Partin/Megan Scott 8-2

Match #4
Marvin Ridge 6, Northwestern 0
1s: Mariel Emery def Chandler Green 6-2, 6-1
2s: Paige Nestor def Betsy Creech 6-2, 6-1
3s: Robyn Buchanan def Alexis Peddy 6-0, 6-3
4s: Danielle David def Courtney Cox 6-1, 6-0
5s: Meredith Sawry def Karlee Fox 6-0, 6-1

2d: Allie Kmee/Erin Foley def Emily Edwards/Erin Brooks 8-6

Match #5
Nation Ford 6, Piedmont 0
1s: Jordan Bowers def Sarah Venn 6-1, 6-1
2s: Ashley Trull def Edy Kemo 6-2, 6-1
3s: Suzanna Goss def Sarah Hedley 6-1, 6-2
4s: Melanie Mullen def Grace Brooks 6-0, 6-0
5s: Morgan Jasper def Hannah Venn 6-0, 6-4

2d: Olivia Whitener/Kendall Lucas def Taylor Barrineau/Lauren Mullis 8-0

Match #6
Butler 4, Fort Mill 3
1s: Hollie Champion def Mady Katz 6-0, 6-2
2s: Emily Larkin def Kayla Blakeney 6-3, 6-2
3s: Emery Carlough def Ali Jensen 7-6, 3-6, 10-8
4s: Persephone McCollough (F) def Jaclyn Auara 6-2, 6-0
5s: Addie Brown (F) def Megan Kenny 6-0, 6-0

1d: Hollie Champion/Kelly Russell def Mady Katz/Kayla Blakely 8-6
2d: Reagan Paff/Laine Touchberry (F) def Callie Strachan/Sarah McIntosh 8-1

Match #7
Butler 4, Northwestern 1
1s: Hollie Champion def Chandler Green 6-1, 6-0
2s: Emily Larkin def Betsy Creech 7-5, 6-2
3s: Kelly Russell def Alexis Peddy 6-4, 7-5
4s: Emery Carlough lead Lauren Cox 6-4, DNF
5s: Jaclyn Auraro def Erin Brooks 6-3, 6-3

2d: Karlee Fox/Caroline Herron (N) def Mertan Kenny/Callie Strahan 8-4

Match #8
Fort Mill 6, Piedmont 0
1s: Mady Katz def Sarah Venn 6-2, 6-4
2s: Kayla Blakely def Edy Kemo 6-2, 6-3
3s: Ali Jensen def Sarah Headley 6-2, 6-1
4s: Persephone McCollough def Grace Brooks 6-2, 6-1
5s: Addie Brown def Hannah Venn 6-2, 6-7, 11-9

2d: Reagan Paff/Laine Touchberry def Morgan Miles/Christa Whaley 8-0

Match #9
Marvin Ridge 5, Nation Ford 1
1s: Mariel Emery def Jordan Bowers 6-0, 6-3
2s: Paige Nestor def Ashley Trull 6-0, 6-1
3s: Hannah Farley def Rylee Smith 6-2, 6-1
4s: Meredith Sawrey def Suzanna Goss 7-5, 6-1
5s: Melanie Mullen (N) def Suzanne Treske 1-6, 6-4, 13-11

2d: Robyn Buchanen/Laura Gough def Olivia Whitener/Kendall Lucas 8-7

Final Tournament Records

Marvin Ridge 3-0 (NC & Overall Champion)
Nation Ford 2-1 (SC Champion & Overall Runner up)
Butler 2-1
Fort Mill 1-2
Northwestern 1-2
Piedmont 0-3

SC v NC Border Challenge - Day 1

2010-08-27T21:16:00.008-04:00

Day 1 of our hosted tournament was 2/3 of a success. We finished off Piedmont in just under 2 hours and Marvin Ridge swept Fort Mill in about the same time. Unfortunately, Nation Ford and Butler had most of their matches nearing an end to their first sets when lightning struck just north of the school. That match was suspended and will be completed first thing in the morning.

I was fairly pleased with our results tonight. We had an outmatched opponent & we put them away like we should. I am really pleased that we have already played two scrimmages so that the nerves of competing against a new opponent are minimalized. I'm sure Caroline was dissapointed in her result, but I told her afterwards that I was super proud of how hard she fought against a much older player from Piedmont.

I would have to say that the player of the day for Northwestern was Emily Edwards. Emily played her first singles match of this year for us after playing some singles, but mostly doubles, last year. She hit the ball very clean tonight & made several great hussle plays that made me smile. (Emily - Sorry, but I had to use last year's picture)

The Nation Ford / Butler delay will throw a slight kink in tommorrow's schedule. I texted the captains to communicate to our team that our 2nd match time will be delayed 30 minutes. Clearly, I understand that the girls want to get to the football game at 4. However, we need to be respectful of the schools we have asked to spend their Saturday with us & give some rest time to Butler who now has to play 2 1/2 matches in 5 1/2 hours.

The new match times are posted below the box scores for tommorrow.

Go Trojans!

Day 1 Results - SC v NC Border Challenge

Location: Northwestern HS, Rock Hill SC

Result #1
Northwestern 5, Piedmont 1
1s: Chandler Green def Sarah Venn 6-1, 6-0
2s: Betsy Creech def Edy Kemo 6-2, 6-3
3s: Alexis Peddy def Sarah Headley 6-2, 6-0
4s: Emily Edwards def Grace Brooks 6-0, 6-1
5s: Hannah Venn (P) def Caroline Herron 4-6, 6-2, 10-7

1d: DNP
2d: Courtney Cox/Lauren Cox def Miranda Leazer/Megan Brewer 8-0

Result #2
Marvin Ridge 6, Fort Mill 0
1s: Mariel Finery def Mady Katz 6-3, 6-0
2s: Paige Nestor def Kayla Blakeley 6-0, 6-0
3s: Hannah Florian def Ali Jensen 6-2, 6-2
4s: Minali Nigam def Persephone McCollough 6-0, 6-3
5s: Hannah Farley def Addie Brown 6-0, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Danielle David/Robyn Buchanan def Reagan Paff/Laina Touchberry 8-2

Result #3

Nation Ford v. Butler - Suspended due to lightning

Schedule for Sat 8/28:

8:00 Nation Ford v Butler (Resume match from 8/27)
9:00 Northwestern v Marvin Ridge
11:00 Fort Mill v Butler
11:30 Nation Ford v Piedmont
1:30 Northwestern v Butler
3:00 Fort Mill v Piedmont
3:30 Nation Ford v Marvin Ridge

Another Good Showing in Scrimmage vs. York

2010-08-25T21:09:00.002-04:00

We officially became the first team to compete at the new York High School tennis courts tonight. We also became the first team to win a contest on those courts.

Playing without our top player, I had a feeling that we would be challenged more than usual with everyone playing up a spot. We generally have a match or two get closer than comfort and have dropped some here and there in the past. Today was no different as we dropped 1 line, after sweeping the other 6 varsity contests.

We've looked good in our first two scrimmages thus far. Entering the weekend and our tournament matches, I am confident in two things:

1) We are much improved from last year
2) We have many players with the talent to win varsity matches

We'll have fun this weekend playing against three schools that we have never faced before. We kick it off Friday night against Piedmont HS out of Indian Trail. Then, Saturday morning we will play Marvin Ridge HS, from Marvin near Weddington. Our last match is against Butler HS from east Charlotte. I anticipate playing multiple different lineups to get different people playing singles and doubles. With the depth of talent our team has, we have the ability to do that.

Good showing in scrimmage vs. Fort Mill

2010-08-20T14:48:00.004-04:00

Well, we got a contest played as somehow the storms that surrounded the county all day gave us just enough time to complete the varsity matches needed to decide a match. Overall, we lead by a count of 4 matches to 1 against Ft Mill with one match being suspended due to the approaching storms.

With any first scrimmage, I don't expect greatness. The girls exceeded my expectations last night and played better than I had predicted they would. The nerves seemed to be gone quickly as everyone played at a very high level.

We'll travel over to York next week to get another scrimmage in before hosting our 6 team varsity tournament next weekend. From talking with the other coaches participating in that event, the girls at those schools are pretty excited to come to our courts and compete.

Go Trojans!

Court # 1 at Northwestern Renamed "Bartelmo Court"

2010-08-13T12:24:00.005-04:00

We had a nice little break from normal practice today to honor two former Northwestern standouts. The brother-sister combination of Andrew & Sally Bartelmo blessed Northwestern HS with their tennis talents from 2002-2009. Both Andrew & Sally played the top spot on their respective boys and girls teams for many years and helped their teams become better overall with their talent and leadship while always having fun doing it.

Andrew's tennis career was continued after high school as he attended Vincennes College in Indiana where he was a top 100 ranked NJCAA player. He later transferred to UNC Greensboro where he played and volunteered as a coach. While coaching, the UNC Greensboro men's team advanced to the Division I NCAA championships and played perenial powerhouse University of Georgia in Athens, GA.

Sally's high school career was cut short by a year due to a knee injury which required surgery in the fall of 2009. Sally played the #1 spot from the moment she was a 7th grader and held that position her entire career. Even after her surgery, Sally remained involved with the Northwestern tennis program by volunteering as my assistant coach for the boys team in the spring of 2009. After high school, Sally enrolled at the University of South Carolina where she joined the Gamecock's lady tennis team.

Andrew and Sally came out this morning and lead the girl's team through some drills and games. They then teamed up as a pair to compete against the boy's #1 doubles team at Northwestern, Seth Russell and Hunter Love. The girls team was treated to lunch while they watched the high level doubles match play out in front of them. We did a ceremony before the exhibition match to formally name court #1 at Northwestern, "BARTELMO COURT."

Sally (Left in picture) leads the girls through some doubles drills

Left to Right: Andrew, Sally, Cary Bartelmo, Former NHS Coach David Bartles

Thank you to all the parents, boosters, and other fans of Northwestern tennis that came out to support these two outstanding alumni. They, and their mother Cary, were very thankful for the support and were very complimentary at the talent the girls displayed as well as Hunter & Seth.

Andrew and Sally warm up against Hunter & Seth in a doubles exhibition.

Girls Tryout Rules & Process

2010-07-26T14:19:00.003-04:00

We will begin tryouts for the 2010 girls season on Monday August 2nd and will go for five consecutive days. Unless we experience rain, tryouts should conclude on Friday August 6th. Tryouts will start at 8:30 AM and last until 11:30 AM on all five days. An end time will depend on the girl's pace of play. Faster players may end sooner & slower players may end later than 11:30.

General Try Out Process:

1) The girls will be placed into groups of 3, 4 or 5 players. The first day, they will be placed in groups based on the players historical team ranking & new players will fill in at the bottom based on age (older starting higher).

2) The girls will play 6 games (no-ad scoring) against each person in their group. A girl can win 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, or 4-3. If 2 girls are tied at 3-3, they will play a 4 point tiebreaker that doesn't have to be won by 2 points (this tiebreak can be won 4-3, 4-2, 4-1, or 4-0). We will play two round robins each day for five straight days.

- No Ad Scoring: http://tennis.about.com/cs/beginners/a/beginnerscore.htm
- Tiebreaker Scoring: http://www.ehow.com/way_5439143_tennis-tiebreaker-rules.html

3) The girl that wins the most games against the other girls in her group will rise up to the next highest group. The girls that wins the fewest games will drop down to the next lowest group. In event of a tie, the head to head winner finishes with a higher rank. In a three way tie, I will look at the margin of victory over the other player(s) in the group.

4) After the first three rotations of players, I will begin marking down where each player finishes in a round. After the first three rotations (2 on day #1 & 1 on day #2) if a player finishes at the top of the top group, they will be given 1 point, 2nd place in the top group gets 2 points, 3rd gets 3 points, etc all the way down to the bottom player in the bottom group. On day 5, I add up all the points that a player was given. The low point earning player is #1, 2nd lowest is #2, etc on down to the lowest rank on the team.

Returning players should remember that this is the same method I used last year except for #2. I have adjusted the scoring method this season to get matches to finish quicker.

Tryout Rules

1) I will use USTA tournament rules to address timeliness. If a player is 5 minutes late, they will forfeit the serve & 1 game to their opponent. 10 minutes late will forfeit serve & 3 games. 15 minutes late will forfeit the first match of the round robin. Be early to avoid being penalized.

2) If a player uses foul language or commits any unsportsmanlike action during tryouts, they will forfeit all their remaining matches that day. If the player comes back the next day and has another incident, she will not be on the team this season.

3) As for CUTS to the team this year, I would like to not have to cut anyone. However, it will depend on the number of players that show up to try out. If we have a large number of players try out I likely will have to make cuts. If that is the case, here is what I would look at:

After tryouts I will ask myself...
- Is a player one of the top 10 players at Northwestern? If yes, they make the team
- If they are not top 10, are they in the top 7 of their class? If yes, they probably make the team, but I will look at what the final try out rankings look like.
- If not top 10 & not top 7 of their class, I will look at the players age & experience. I would favor taking younger players over upper classmen as they have more time to make improvements to their game before they graduate. However, in a situation where a player is #8 in their class and #11 on the team, that player is likely to make the team. Then again if a player is #8 in their class & #20 overall, they would probably not make the team. It will all depend on what the final try out rankings look like.

4) If a new player to the team this year is unable to make tryouts due to a commitment that was made prior to our meeting in May, I will start that player at the bottom of the roster assuming that space exists on the roster. They will play 8 game prosets against the girls at the bottom of the ladder during the first week of practice on August 9th. Based on their results on 8/9 & 8/10 I will make a decision to keep that player on the team or not. I have already been notified by the two players that this impacts & they are aware that this is a more difficult way to earn a high rank on the team than participating in the week of tryouts.

- 8 game Proset: http://www.tenniscoachdave.com/pages/tournaments.aspx

5) It is expected that players will be physically fit to play 3 hours of tennis for 5 consecutive days. If a player is unfit at tryouts, I may ask them to not participate this season. We will spend a lot of time the first 3 weeks of preseason practice on conditioning, but it is important that players have a base level of fitness to avoid heat illness from doing strenuous outdoor exercise.

6) After these initial challenges, a player can only move up or down 1 position at a time. Regular match scoring will be used after tryouts where 2 no-ad sets are played & a 10-point tiebreak is the sets are split. My goal for this season is to have no more than 1 challenge match per week (Fridays) after try outs among our top 10 players. Lower ranking players will likely challenge more often than the top 10 players.

It is important to undestand that I am looking for players who can continue to build a strong foundation of tennis at Northwestern. We have made great strides the past two years that I have coached and I am looking to continue in a positive direction. Tryouts will be a highly competitive environment. However, all players need to keep in mind that high school tennis is a team sport and it will take a team of players for us to be successful this year and into the future.

Boys Banquet Summary

2010-05-24T21:31:00.006-04:00

The end of season gathering was a really great event. It was good to get our three seniors together once again before they head off to college next year. And of course, I had to let the returning guys know what a great opportunity they have next year to be a great team in the state of South Carolina.

We began the awards part of the program by recognizing our team assistants for the 2010 Season. These two young ladies were very helpful to me in a variety of different ways this spring and took care of many details that often are not thought about. I sincerely thanked:

Betsy Creech
Emily Edwards

We then introduced the non-letter winning players and mentioning their season accomplishments:

Quincy Ghent
Phillip Yommer
Ben Leppard
Collin Schroeder
Jacob Schroeder
Ben Barkley
Jonathan Patton
Brian Fitzpatrick

We then introduced the varsity letter winners for 2010 and touched on their accomplishments:

Wesley Matthews - 1st Tennis Letter
Daniel Hawkins - 1st
Key Barkley - 1st
Tyler Leonard - 2nd
Chris Cassidy - 1st
Michael Baldwin - 1st
Collins Mauldin - 2nd
Jordan Beaver - 3rd
John Clark - 2nd
Hunter Love - 2nd
Drayton Wade - 3rd
Seth Russell - 5th

I then handed out 3 team awards and the coach's award for 2010. The kids had the opportunity to vote for Most Valuable Player, Best Practice Player, and Most Improved Player.

For Best Practice Player, I ask the players to think about who sets a great example in practice and pushes you to work harder because of how they work. The 2010 Best Practice Player was Collins Mauldin.

For the Most Improved Player, I ask the guys to vote for who they think has either improved the most since last season or improved the most over the course of the season. The award for 2010 went to Michael Baldwin.

For the Most Valuable Player award, I ask the players to think about what player was most responsible for the level of success we were able to achieve as a team this season. The award went to Drayton Wade.

For my Coach's Award, I think through the past year as to who represents the team in the highest manner. I try to think of a player that I want others to try to be like in how they work, how they play, and how easy they are to coach. I awarded this year's Coach's Award to Hunter Love.
We had 11 members of the Boys Tennis Program be named All-State Academic Team for 2011 this spring and we awarded them with certificates of their student achievements: Drayton Wade, Jordan Beaver, Collins Mauldin, Michael Baldwin, Tyler Leonard, Daniel Hawkins, Wesley Matthews, Ben Barkley, Jonathan Patton, Ben Leppard and Brian Fitzpatrick.

Betsy & Emily then provided the true highlight of the evening as they presented awards that they came up with that needed mentioning. I wish I had them give me the whole list so I could post it, but the entire room was laughing at some of the creativity that went into the award names (Best Bandanna, Best Pickup Lines, Best Foodfight Starter, etc.)

After we took a few photos, I went over an off-season program that I came up with to motivate the returning players to prepare for next season. Honestly, I assume that if we do no work between now and next year we could finish 3rd in our region next year. That wouldn't be a rewarding season in my opinion.

The whole reason that I put this program together is that I feel this group of returning players should win Region 3-AAAA and be a contender for a state championship in 2011. It won't be an easy goal to accomplish, but if the work goes into it... the reward should be very satisfying next May.

Go Trojans!

2010 Girls Meeting Recap

2010-05-19T20:46:00.005-04:00

Thanks to all those who attended tonight's meeting. I apologize that it ran longer than I anticipated, but I do hope that valuable information was learned about the upcoming girls season next fall.

To recap what was covered:

1) Sign in
All players signed in & an initial team roster will be emailed to all that attended. The purpose of the initial roster is for girls to have each other's contact information to play and practice together this summer and for parents to communicate with each other.

2) Eligibility Requirements
- Physical form signed by a parent is required prior to participation in any sport at NHS.
- Grades must be acceptable (C or better) to participate in interscholastic sports. See your guidance counselor if you are worried about your academic status
- Copy of a players birth certificate must be on file in the athletic office prior to any contest with another school

3) Tryouts 8/2 - 8/6
The first week of the season's practice will be used to play multiple round robin challenge matches against each other. These sessions will start at 8:30AM and should wrap up by 12 noon at the latest. I expect all players to bring with them:
- Racket(s)
- Tennis shoes (not running shoes)
- Water Bottle
- Snack (if needed)

After 5 sessions of challenges, an initial ladder will be established ranking each player based on their results. After this first week, a player can move up or down only one spot at a time in a challenge match against another player.

4) Rules
I went over some basic rules, but in a nutshell the only real rule that I will be particular about is that if a player wants to play in matches they need to be at practice. I do expect good behavior & sportsmanship at practice and during matches...that is rarely a problem with this group of kids.

I also believe that a player should be at a match from beginning to end. Tennis is an individual sport, but players on this team are part of a team. It does bother me when players ask if it is OK to leave a match when they are finished playing. To me, that is like a pitcher leaving a baseball game when a relief pitcher is brought in to finish the game. I would like players to stay at the matches until all players have finished playing.

5) Fall Practice Schedule
Before the school year starts, we will practice in the morning to avoid the heat of the day. I handed out a season long schedule of how I anticipate the season folding out. It is subject to change that is usually the result of rained out matches.

Practice is never cancelled due to weather. If it rains on a practice or match day we will always have an indoor practice & conditioning after school. I will text the team captains the plan for that day & captains forward that text message to the rest of the team.

The practice schedule also lists the days that we will be having matches and what times players need to be at the courts for either warm up or bus departure.

6) Match Schedule
This season we have 2 scrimmages, 1 tournament, and 17 matches scheduled & I handed out the schedule.

Our region will consist of Spartanburg, Gaffney, Clover, Rock Hill, and Lancaster whom we will play twice each. Matches are mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but there are a couple Monday & Wednesday contests. Other than the week of Labor Day, I tried to avoid back to back matches until the last week of the season when we are preparing for playoffs.

We are tentatively (99% confirmed) hosting a 6 team round robin tournament on Friday August 27th & Saturday August 28th. Northwestern, Fort Mill, and Nation Ford will be competing against 3 Charlotte area schools in a SC vs. NC challenge.

7) Off Season Workouts
We have the potential to be a good team this fall and I would like that to happen. However, we have stiff competition in our region. We cannot expect to show up after not having worked hard this summer and expect to beat teams on our schedule.

Therefore, I developed a summer program for the girls to track their practice progress over the next 10 weeks. There is a point system that has a goal of 14 points every week for each player. This is an amount that I feel we need to accomplish in order for us to be competitive with our opponents this fall.

There are three basic categories that I feel the players need to focus on

1- Instruction (Lessons/Camps/Clinics as well as practice hitting)
2- Competition (Practice matches/Tournaments)
3- Physical fitness (Running/Weight training)

The points are intentionally weighted heavily towards competition, but it is very possible to earn points every day simply by being athletically active. It is up to the player to determine how they want to earn points. A beginner player might want to get more instruction whereas a more experienced player might want to focus on fitness and competing in tournaments.

Frankly, I could care less how the goal is met. What is important to me is that the girls have a goal to meet and they try to reach it. The more effort and thought that goes into it the better.

8) Summer Trip 2011
I tossed around some potential ideas for something fun with tennis that we could start to brainstorm about for next year.

We live really close to some of the best tennis and beach resorts in the world and an obvious fun idea to me would be a beach trip to the coast for a week. We could do Hilton Head tennis clinics at Palmetto Dunes in the morning and spend the day at the beach.

Another thought would be a Labor Day 2011 trip to New York to watch the US Open. We could probably find a New York City school to play against and then go to the Open for a few days.

There are many other feasible options, but unfortunately none would be free. I really would like to see if parents can start communicating about two things:
1 - A plan for a trip (location & dates)
2- Fundraising ideas

Looking forward to seeing everyone on August 2nd!

Trojans Defeated in Second Round by #3 ranked Dorman

2010-05-06T22:14:00.005-04:00

The trip to Dorman to compete in round 2 of the SC AAAA state championships ended up being the last match of the 2010 spring season for the Trojans. The 0-7 defeat handed to us by the Cavaliers leaves us with a final record of 12-6. We may not have claimed a win at any line tonight, but I was happy with the quality of tennis that we played against one of the state's elite programs this year.

I tried to downplay the strength of Dorman's team in practice yesterday even though I know that they have been the buzz of the upstate this spring as far as contenders go for the state title. They have been ranked in the top 5 of the SCTCA's coach's poll this season and were picked #3 in the April 17th poll. After seeing them in action, it is clear to me that the buzz is accurate and they do have a legit shot at winning this year's championship. Their lines 1 through 4 are very solid and there is a very small drop off at #5. Their doubles team might not beat Spring Valley or Lexington, but if the top of their lineup takes care of business, they can pull it off.

On paper, we had no business competing with Dorman:

Their #1 is ranked #11 in the USTA SC's 18's, ours is unranked

Their #2 is ranked #4 in the 14's, ours is ranked #106 in the 18's

Their #3 is ranked #79 in the 18's, ours is #50 in the 16's

Their #4 is ranked #83 in the 18's, ours is unranked

Their #5 is ranked #78 in the 14's, ours is unranked

But that is why you play the game. Sure, they beat us at every line tonight. We did give them some fits tonight and played hard. I thought that the doubles team would force a match tiebreak and win their match to remain undefeated on the season. Jordan even looked like he'd have a chance to sneak a set off their #5.

Hunter even tried so hard that he broke out a dramatic jump serve that he and I worked on yesterday...it was absolutely hysterical & it cost me 5 bucks since I bet him that he wouldn't do it. His opponents mother made me almost fall down laughing when she said, "What in the world was that?" (Note: Hunter won that point...probably because the kids had no clue how to react to something so goofy looking.) It was 5 bucks well spent!

I generally don't give a lot of thought to rankings when I play someone, but they do usually reflect a competitiveness that a player has. To be ranked high, you need to play a lot of tournament events year round. It's possible to play 3 or 4 events and be ranked in the top 100 if you can win a few matches. However, to be ranked near the top 10 of an age group you need to play 12-15 tournaments a year and get wins against a lot of quality opponents.

The Northwestern boys team has a lot of potential to rise up to the level of Dorman and Spring Valley. We have some true talent returning next year that simply needs to log the hours on court and have a desire to get better. Do players need to take lessons? Yes. Do players need to spend a lot of time with hitting practice? Yes. Do players need to play practice matches against each other? Yes. Do players need to compete in tournaments year round? Yes. Do players need to be running & lifting weights? Yes. Is this a lot to ask of the players? Absolutely.

It isn't something that is going to be easy to do, but nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy. I plan on giving every returning player a goals chart and a point system that I created to help everyone become better players. I don't expect that every player will follow this plan 100%, but I do promise any player that does will improve dramatically in their skill and athleticism over the next 9 months. I also promise that players that don't follow the plan will be passed up in tryouts next year by the players that do.

Next season starts now.

Go Trojans!

Location: Dorman HS, Roebuck, SC
Result: Dorman 7, Northwestern 0

Singles
1- Jackson Keith def Drayton Wade 6-0, 6-2
2- Wood Benton def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-0
3- Andrew Harvey def Hunter Love 6-0, 6-0
4- Skyler Wenkles def John Clark 6-1, 6-2
5- Patrick Tobacco def Jordan Beaver 6-2, 6-2

Doubles
1- Jay Michels/Michael Hileski def Collins Mauldin/Michael Baldwin 6-4, 6-4
2- Mayfield Reynolds/Forrest Reynolds def Chris Cassidy/Tyler Leonard 8-4
Records: Dorman 14-3, Northwestern 12-6

Jump Serve Maestro

Trojans Advance to Second Round with Win over Rock Hill High

2010-05-04T21:16:00.005-04:00

For the first time since the 2006 spring season, the Northwestern boys tennis team advanced to the second round of the SCHSL AAAA state playoffs by defeating the Rock Hill Bearcats 4-2. The victory improves our record to 12-5 overall and has now doubled our win total from a season ago.

The All Region doubles team of Michael Baldwin and Collins Mauldin cleared the courts first with a swift victory. The first set was a shutout before the Rock Hill team was able to get on the board in the second set. The second set was even early until the Trojan boys took control again for a 6-2 second set and the first team win for the Trojans on the night.

Hunter Love finished next at #3 singles. Again facing the same quality opponent in Silverman of the Bearcats, Hunter played near flawless tennis to give the Trojans team win #2 by score of 6-1, 6-1.

Jordan Beaver bumped up from his normal #5 spot for a match up advantage that I figured we would have at the #4 spot against Cauthen of Rock Hill with Jordan's heavy topspin. Jordan popped a string in warm ups and had to play with Hunter's spare racket tonight...yes, this made me nervous. It seemed to bother Jordan slightly as he warmed up against Cauthen, but ended up being no problem in the end. Jordan's win at #4 put us ahead 3 matches to none at that point.

The Bearcats then got on the board after the #1 singles match concluded. Drayton played pretty well against Lee of Rock Hill, but wow...Lee played well, better than I have ever seen him play. Drayton went down and the scoreboard was lopsided, but give Drayton credit for fighting back in the second set.

Two matches remained out of the initial six at this point as Seth Russell played at #2 singles and Chris Cassidy (pictured at top) filled in at the #5 position. Chris was up a set and two service breaks, while Seth trailed by a set and one break. Both matches finished within a minute of each other and Chris was able to clinch the line 5 win & the match for the Trojans. I couldn't be more proud of Chris for stepping up and finishing big for his team in a pressure situation.

We anticipate a match up with Dorman in round 2 as they were the #1 seed out of Region 2 and played the #4 seed Wren out of Region 1. I smell The Beacon...

Go Trojans!

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

Singles
1) Austin Lee (R) def Drayton Wade 6-0, 6-2
2) Alik MacLachlan (R) def Seth Russell 7-5, 6-4
3) Hunter Love (N) def Alex Silverman 6-1, 6-1
4) Jordan Beaver (N) def Nick Cauthen 6-1, 6-2
5) Chris Cassidy (N) def Austin Shores 6-4, 6-2

Doubles
1) DNP
2) Collins Mauldin/Michael Baldwin (N) def Tony Ly, Michael Adams 6-0, 6-2
Records: Northwestern 12-5, Rock Hill 9-6

Three Trojan Boys Named to 2010 All Region Team

2010-05-04T08:20:00.008-04:00

The region 3-AAAA coaches met last night at Clover HS to select the All-Region team for 2010 and nominate players to the state singles tournament. Three players from Northwestern were given all region honors and one was selected as an alternate to the state singles tournament.

Seth Russell (pictured top right)was selected to the All-Region team for the second straight season. Seth has compiled a 10-5 overall record this spring, including a 7-3 mark in region matches at #1 singles. Seth's name has also been given as an alternate to the SC High School League for consideration in the 2010 AAA-AAAA State Singles Tournament later this month.

The doubles team of Michael Baldwin (pictured bottom right) & Collins Mauldin (left)was also selected to the All-Region team. When playing together this season, these two young men had a combined record of 11-0 while going 8-0 in Region 3-AAAA. Together, these two boys have been the most successful doubles team I have ever coached at Northwestern.

2010 Region 3-AAAA All Region Team

Chase Altieri, Clover
Tyler Davis, Fort Mill

Seth Russell, Northwestern

Madison Ott, Nation Ford

Danny Randar, Nation Ford

Nick Deahl, Clover

Will Decker, Clover

Chase Lovins, Fort Mill

Andres Leon, Fort Mill

Tucker DeLoach, Clover

Collins Mauldin, Northwestern

Michael Baldwin, Northwestern

Player of the Year: Chase Altieri, Clover

Coach of the Year: Matt Rohring, Nation Ford

SCHSL AAA Playoff Bracket

2010-04-29T07:28:00.003-04:00

This will get updated over the next 48 hours by the SC High School League:

http://www.schsl.org/2009%20brackets/bteaaaa.pdf

Our region's teams are listed already, but the other regions have not yet reported as of the time of this post. Check back as often as you'd like to see what other teams we will be competing against in the 2010 boys tennis state championships.

Go Trojans!

Trojans Defeated by Bearcats

2010-04-28T21:47:00.004-04:00

Our last regular season match didn't go exactly as we had hoped tonight at cross town rival Rock Hill High. We played good at some lines and not so good at others. The match was tied 3 matches each and the #1 doubles point had to be played to decide it. We came up just short in that match and went home with the loss.

Hunter Love shined tonight at #3 singles. He defeated a normally very consistent player in Silverman of the Bearcats fairly easily. However, what I enjoyed about watching the match was Hunter's ability to finish strong and not let off the gas.

Jordan Beaver was back to his normal ways at #5 singles. Jordan surrendered one game in the first set before a shutout in the second against Adams from Rock Hill High.

Our dependable doubles duo of Michael Baldwin and Collins Mauldin claimed our third win on the night. They played a much more aggressive and controlling doubles match than in our previous encounter with the Bearcats. The score reflected it as they gave only 3 games up in route to the win.

Well, playoffs are the next focus for this team. All we know at this point is that we are the #3 seed out of Region 3-AAAA. Our first round opponent will be the #2 seed out of Region 4-AAAA and there is a 2nd place tie there between Blythewood & Rock Hill. I am unsure if their tiebreaker system is the same as ours. If it is the same we likely will get a 3rd match up against Rock Hill. We should know by the weekend and will focus tomorrow on challenge matches & Monday on practicing for whoever we shall face.

Go Trojans!

Location: Rock Hill HS
Result: Rock Hill 4, Northwestern 3

Singles
1- Austin Lee def Seth Russell 6-2, 6-2
2- Alik McGlochlin def Drayton Wade 6-1, 6-3
3- Hunter Love (N) def Alex Silverman 6-3, 6-1
4- Nick Cauthen def John Clark 6-1, 6-2
5- Jordan Beaver (N) def Michael Adams 6-1, 6-0

Doubles
1- Lee/McGlochlin def Russell/Wade 6-2, 6-4
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (N) def Austin Shores/Tony Lee 6-2, 6-1

Records: Rock Hill 9-5, Northwestern 11-5

Trojans Defeat South Pointe on Senior Night

2010-04-26T20:35:00.007-04:00

Tonight was more than just a match as it was the last time that Drayton Wade, Michael Baldwin, and Tyler Leonard will suit up on the Northwestern courts for the tennis program. These three young men have been terrific for me to work with and I learned in their remarks after the match that their memories will be much more about the off the court stuff than the matches they played.

What I will remember about these three is how hard they worked in practice every day. Sure, I'll remember Drayton's win over Clover to seal the win for us. I'll also remember Michael going 9-1 in region matches this year. I will remember Tyler winning every match he played this year. However, I will remember these three as asking me multiple times for help on their games & I will remember them working with me and on their own to get better.

All three seniors were victorious in their singles matches tonight. Drayton held down the top spot tonight for us. Michael played the number three spot and won a well played second set after a somehwat frustrating first set. Tyler played the 5th singles spot and won it fairly handily as well.

The win improves our overall record to 11-4. We have one regular season match remaining to prepare for the post season at Rock Hill HS on Wednesday. We did defeat the Bearcats previously 4 matches to 2, however I am hopeful that we are able to reverse our fortune in the 2 matches that were dropped.

The playoffs will start next Monday. I still am unsure of whether we'll be seeded 3rd or 4th out of our region. It will come down to who is declared the 1 & 2 seeds. If Nation Ford is declared #1, we will be #3 since we have a victory over them. However, if Fort Mill is declared the #1, Clover will get the #3 since they have a victory over them and we do not. The drama will be played out at the end of the week & I will know for sure where we go by the weekend. I'll let everyone know as soon as I know.

Go Trojans!

Singles
1) Drayton Wade def Ian Sanford 6-2, 6-3
2) Hunter Love def Lukas Farris 6-0, 6-0
3) Michael Baldwin def Conner McCoy 7-6, 6-1
4) Chris Cassidy def Jonathan Hoover 6-3, 6-3
5) Tyler Leonard def Preston Darby 6-2, 6-4

Doubles
1) DNP
2) Jordan Beaver/Collins Mauldin win by default 6-0, 6-0

Trojans Finish Region in Tie for Third

2010-04-22T21:42:00.003-04:00

We went to Gaffney and our match went almost as we expected. We played hard from beginning to end & took the match to increase our region record to 6-4 overall. Other region results tonight included Clover beating York 6-0 to finish tied with us at 6-4 in the region. The upset of the day was Fort Mill defeating Nation Ford 4 to 3 after playing the #1 doubles match. Fort Mill and Nation Ford finish as co-champions in the region & tiebreakers will have to be played out to determine playoff seeding.

Monday's match with South Pointe will be our senior night & we will have a little celebration afterwards to thank Drayton, Michael & Tyler for their contributions to Northwestern tennis over the years. All three boys will be playing singles matches against the Stallions as we will mix up the lineup some to have a good, fun match with our cross town rivals.

Go Trojans!

Location: Gaffney
Result: Northwestern 5, Gaffney 1

Singles
1- Seth Russell def Clayton Whitt 6-0, 6-1
2- Drayton Wade def James BeLue 6-1, 6-0
3- Hunter Love def Nick Parker 6-0, 6-1
4- Mark Lovingood (G) def John Clark 6-4, 2-6, 10-5
5- Jordan Beaver def Milah Shah 6-1, 6-0

Doubles
2- Collins Mauldin/Michael Baldwin def Aaron Warren/Alex Hitchcliffe 6-1, 6-0

Final Region 3-AAAA Standings
1- Fort Mill 8-2
1- Nation Ford 8-2 (tie)
3- Northwestern 6-4
3- Clover 6-4 (tie)
5- York 2-8
6- Gaffney 0-10

Trojans Drop to Third Place tie with Loss to Fort Mill

2010-04-21T21:51:00.005-04:00

I told the boys after the 2-5 loss tonight at Fort Mill that we need to be big time Nation Ford fans for the day tomorrow while we focus on defeating Gaffney. The current region standings have Nation Ford in first place (8-1), Fort Mill in second (7-2), Northwestern & Clover in third (5-4). Nation Ford plays Fort Mill, we go to Gaffney, and Clover hosts York in the final region matches of 2010.

Tonights match had two highlights for us. First was that Hunter Love (pictured) played as well as he has all season in a grudge match against Lovin from Fort Mill. Hunter had lost in their previous meeting in straight sets & was determined to return the favor. Boy, did he ever. He dominated from the first point to the last as he claimed a 6-1, 6-3 victory for the Trojans.

Our undefeated doubles team of Collins Mauldin and Michael Baldwin stayed perfect as a pair this season. Huckaby & Bullard of Fort Mill are good doubles players, but in the end the cohesiveness of our guys paid off as they claimed 1 out of two tiebreakers in the end for our second point.

Mission at hand is Gaffney. We need to take care of business there to insure we are at least tied with Clover for third. After that, we'll say our prayers for Nation Ford as I have no idea how the tiebreaker will work out in the end if Fort Mill & Nation Ford are both 8-2 and Clover & us are both 6-4.

Go Trojans!

Location: Fort Mill
Result: Fort Mill 5, Northwestern 2

Singles
1- Tyler Davis def Seth Russell 6-3, 6-4
2- Kyle Patterson def Drayton Wade 4-6, 6-4, 10-6
3- Hunter Love (N) def Chase Lovin 6-1, 6-3
4- Andres Leon def John Clark 6-0, 6-2
5- Alex Masters def Jordan Beaver 6-3, 3-6, 10-7

Doubles
1- Davis/Leon def Russell/Love 8-4
2- Collins Mauldin/Michael Baldwin (N) def Clay Bullard/Cory Huckaby 6-2, 6-7, 10-6

Annoying Rain out at Fort Mill

2010-04-20T18:15:00.002-04:00

It spit on us as we waited to depart for Fort Mill, but seemed like it wouldn't accumulate and our courts were fine at 4:00 when we left. As we pulled into Fort Mill HS, the spit became a sprinkle that made the courts barely unplayable.

This match will be made up tomorrow at 5PM at Fort Mill HS. The bus will again depart the courts at 4:10pm. No one will need to bring drinks or snacks to the match. The boys have been informed to pack their own stuff for tomorrow.

Trojans Improve Region Record to 5-3 with Win over York

2010-04-15T21:04:00.004-04:00

It was a great night for tennis at Northwestern. We had perfect weather and near flawless tennis was played by the Trojans tonight. We played down a man tonight with John Clark having sprained or broken his left ankle in practice last night, but we still dominated from top to bottom.

The victory over York gives us an overall record of 9-3 and we sit firmly in third place at this point courtesy of a Nation Ford (7-1) win over Clover (4-4) tonight. Fort Mill (6-2) is temporarily ahead of us in second. We can tie for second place with a win at Fort Mill next Tuesday & we would have the tiebreak edge over them due to our best region win (Nation Ford) being better than their best region win (Clover).

Jordan Beaver bumped up from his normal #5 spot to #4 in place of John. He posted similar results as we are accustomed to seeing out of him and swept both sets against Patrick of York.

Chris Cassidy (pictured right) entered the lineup at #5 singles in place of Jordan's vacated #5 spot. The boy was up for the challenge. Only 2 games were surrendered to Stowe of the Cougars as Chris gave us a solid W.

Our doubles team of Collins Mauldin & Michael Baldwin were informed by me that they are currently undefeated when playing together this season and are likely contenders for all-region status, should they continue their dominance over our next three region foes. They responded huge and shutout the team from York of Womble & Sanford.

Our top 3, Seth Russell @ 1, Drayton Wade @2, and Hunter Love @3 were all solid and posted victories in straight sets while only surrendering 11 total games between the three lines to the Cougars.

We are without a doubt the deepest team in Region 3-AAAA. We secured reserve singles wins by Tyler Leonard (8-0), Brian Fitzpatrick (8-1), Key Barkley (8-3), Daniel Hawkins, pictured left (8-0), and Ben Barkley (8-0). Daniel & Key teamed up for a doubles shutout (8-0) and the Schroeder brothers, Collin & Jacob, got in the mix for an 8-6 win as well.

Fort Mill is next and revenge should be on our minds. Fort Mill got us early in a tight contest that was decided on two tiebreaker matches, which we dropped both. You can bet your buns that we will be doing a lot of tiebreakers in practice on Monday to prepare ourselves to take claim to the second seed and secure a home playoff match for the first time in the last 4 years.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 6, York 0

Singles
1- Seth Russell def Chris Suggs 6-0, 6-2
2- Drayton Wade def Jensen Fisk 6-1, 6-2
3- Hunter Love def Kyle Spears 6-1, 7-5
4- Jordan Beaver def Nathan Patrick 6-0, 6-0
5- Chris Cassidy def Andrew Stowe 6-1, 6-1

Doubles
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin def Charlie Womble/Will Sanford 6-0, 6-0

Trojans Drop Region Match to Clover

2010-04-13T22:03:00.002-04:00

This was a forgettable match for us. We drop into third with now a 4-3 region record and an 8-3 mark over all.

Location: Clover
Result: Clover 5, Northwestern 1

Singles
1- Chase Altieri def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-0
2- Will Decker def Drayton Wade 2-6, 6-4, 10-4
3- Nick Deahl def Hunter Love 7-5, 6-1
4- Tucker Deloach def John Clark 6-2, 6-2
5- JC Dougherty def Jordan Beaver 0-6, 6-2, 10-4

Doubles
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (N) def Garrett Smith/Patrick Smith 6-2, 6-4

Trojans Defeat Rival Bearcats

2010-04-12T20:35:00.008-04:00

I can't say it was the prettiest tennis to ever be played on the Northwestern courts, but it was good enough to win tonight as we defeated Rock Hill HS 4 matches to 2. The win improves our overall record to 8-2 overall and we remain 4-2 in our region. Our match at Clover tomorrow will require us to raise our game a couple notches in order to improve our region record.

Jordan Beaver (pictured right) at 5 singles was the first to finish and did so in winning fashion. Jordan went up early in the first set against Adams of Rock Hill and claimed the first set 6-0. The second set was a little tighter and Jordan finished it off 6-4 in the end.

Hunter Love cleared court 3 next with our second victory of the night. Hunter played near flawless in the first set against Silverman of Rock Hill, a very steady and consistent player. The second set played on serve until Hunter took his serve at 3-4. Hunter held serve, broke Silverman, and held again to close out the match and the second team victory.

Seth Russell finished next at 1 singles. Something was goofy in the first set as Seth fell behind quickly to his long time friend and rival, Lee for the Bearcats. Seth played better in the second set in stretches, but it wasn't enough to force a tiebreak and Rock Hill took their first win.

We then had two matches go into tiebreakers at nearly the same time. John Clark had claimed a quick first set at 4 singles before dropping the second. The doubles team of Tyler Leonard & Collins Mauldin (pictured at bottom) had dropped their first set before making a comeback in the second.

Coach: "John, hit like you do in warm ups and stop pushing balls down the middle."
John: "OK"
Tiebreaker score - 10-5 for John

Tyler and Collins had gotten on a roll in the second set and the momentum carried through the tiebreaker as they also won by score of 10-5. The doubles victory was the clinching 4th win for us.

Drayton Wade remained on the court at 2 singles. Drayton played possibly the best tennis I have ever seen him play in the first set. He made excellent decisions and executed in almost every situation. The second set turned in the favor of MacGlauchlin of Rock Hill's favor as he began to dictate the tempo a little more and claimed the second set. The tiebreaker was lopsided at first until Drayton made a late charge. It wasn't enough and Rock Hill claimed it's second point of the night.

Off to Clover tomorrow we go. This will be an improved Clover team than we played the first time through. Their top player is now playing singles and I assume he will play at the top of their lineup. We will probably face new opponents at every court. Anything less than our best effort will not be enough if we wish to remain in second place in region 3-AAAA all by ourselves.

CN2 coverage (click on April 13th Sports Roundup):

http://www.cn2.com/web/guest/sports;jsessionid=A60A7C1F3999C9A6528AA986A71B7FCF

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, Rock Hill 2

Singles
1 - Austin Lee (R) def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-4
2 - Alik MacGlauchlin (R) def Drayton Wade 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
3 - Hunter Love def Alex Silverman 6-1, 6-4
4 - John Clark def Nick Cauthen 6-2, 3-6, 10-5
5 - Jordan Beaver def Mike Adams 6-0, 6-4

Doubles
1 - DNP
2 - Collins Mauldin / Tyler Leonard def Austin Shore / Tony Ly 4-6, 6-3, 10-5

Not Our Night against Nation Ford

2010-04-01T23:06:00.006-04:00

We got off to a great start to the match and took first set wins in 5 of the initial 6 matches. However, Nation Ford played real well across the board and took second set wins in 4 of those 6. We ended up dropping the doubles match to decide the match and suffered a region loss to Nation Ford and temporarily surrendered our first place lead. We now stand 7-2 overall and 4-2 in the region. Next on our radar is a very important non-region match against Rock Hill High as well as a region pairing with Clover after spring break.

Hunter Love (pictured) seemed to snap out of his recent funk in singles matches and dominated the #3 singles match for us tonight against a good Falcon opponent. Hunter played smart, consistent tennis to come out with a straight set win and the first team win for the Trojans tonight.

Our doubles team also was real good tonight. Michael Baldwin and Collins Mauldin (pictured at the bottom) controlled the match from beginning to end for a straight set win and our second team win of the night, putting up ahead 2 to zip.

At this point, John Clark was the featured match on the courts. John had dominated a first set and won it 6-1. The second set swayed back and forth and ended up knotted at 6-all and needed a tiebreak to decide it. The set tiebreaker went Nation Ford's way and the match tiebreak did as well to give Nation Ford it's first win.

Drayton Wade played well against a tough #2 opponent from Nation Ford. The score may have been straight sets for the Falcons, but Drayton battled to the end in a match that featured great athleticism and even better sportsmanship.

The attention then shifted to Seth Russell at #1 and Jordan Beaver at #5. Seth had claimed a close first set 7-5 and Jordan had won his first set 6-2. Unfortunately, both dropped second sets by identical 6-4 scores and needed their matches decided in 10-point tiebreakers. Seth grabbed the win at #1 with an 11-9 decision, but unfortunately Jordan suffered his first defeat of the season at line 5 by a 7-10 margin.

Under the lights we went to play #1 doubles to decide the match and the region lead. Seth and Hunter took on Ott and Randar from Nation Ford. The first set was ugly for the Trojans as too many errors were committed and the set dropped 2-6. The second set continued some bad momentum as we trailed 0-3 before making a charge to get a lead at 4-3. It began to seem like another tiebreak was about to take place. However, at this point Nation Ford raised their game and we were unable to match it as we dropped the second set.

All we can do is press forward into more matches to determine our final spot in the region 3-AAAA race. At this point, we need to hope for Nation Ford to drop a match to either Fort Mill or Clover while we beat both those schools in order for us to have a shot at the title. If the boys put the rackets up for spring break, it will be very hard to accomplish. However, if they get out and work over the break while our opponents take time off, we have an opportunity to get back into the region hunt.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Nation Ford 4, Northwestern 3

Singles
1- Seth Russell (NW) def Madison Ott 7-5, 4-6, 11-9
2- Danny Randar (NF) def Drayton Wade 6-4, 6-3
3- Hunter Love (NW) def Tyler Morris 6-2, 6-2
4- Brandon McGlohon (NF) def John Clark 1-6, 7-6, 10-8
5- Kyle Lengel (NF) def Jordan Beaver 2-6, 6-4, 10-7

Doubles
1- Ott/Randar (NF) def Russell/Love 6-2, 6-4
2- Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (NW) def Alex McLelland/Paul Hoberek 6-1, 6-4

Michael Baldwin (left) and Collins Mauldin (right) have been the top doubles team in region 3-AAAA this season.

Trojans Down Gaffney

2010-03-30T20:02:00.005-04:00

It was a perfect night for tennis in Rock Hill tonight and the Trojan boys played well to improve our overall record to 7-1 and 4-1 in our region with a sweep of Gaffney. Our next match with Nation Ford will be a huge step towards a region title in 2010. A win would put us in the drivers seat and sole possession of first. Nation Ford was able to defeat Fort Mill tonight to tie us with a 4-1 region record.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 7, Gaffney 0
Singles:
1) Seth Russell def Clayton Whitt 6-1, 6-0
2) Drayton Wade def James BeLue 6-1, 6-1
3) Hunter Love def Nick Parker 6-2, 6-0
4) John Clark def Mark Lovingwood 6-0, 6-4
5) Jordan Beaver def Milah Shah 6-1, 6-1
Doubles
1) Collins Mauldin/Michael Baldwin def Alex Hitchcliff/Aaron Warren 6-2, 6-1
2) Key Barkley/Tyler Leonard def Getty Brannon/Grayson McCrain 6-0, 6-1

Trojans Claim Region Win Over York

2010-03-23T20:56:00.006-04:00

The trip over to York was successful for the Trojans tonight as we claimed 4 out of 5 singles lines and both doubles lines for a 6-1 team victory. The victory improves us to 6-1 overall on the season and 3-1 in region matches. We remain tied for first with Nation Ford & Fort Mill as Nation Ford defeated Clover tonight and Fort Mill beat Gaffney.

Jordan Beaver once again finished his match first tonight at 5 sinlges. Not a game was lost against Stowe from York as Jordan lead wire to wire and never let off the gas.

John Clark claims he finished at the same time as Jordan, but Jordan reached the score book first. It was pretty close as John dropped a couple games in the first set before closing it out with a 6-0 second set.

Drayton Wade was the next to clear the courts at 3 singles. After an early hiccup in the first set, Drayton went on to play some of his best tennis of the spring and reel off 10 straight games for the victory.

The match was sealed at 1 singles by Seth Russell tonight. Suggs from York is

a streaky player and you never really know which player will show up. Seth had little trouble tonight other then a few early errors that cost a couple first set games. The second set was Seth placing pinpoint shots to all areas of the court for Suggs to try to track down. He got to some, but not enough as the second set closed 6-1 for Seth and the match was sealed for the Trojans.

Our doubles pairing tonight was Collins Mauldin and Chris Cassidy also claimed a strong decisive victory tonight. I can't claim to have seen much of the match, but every time I looked down at court #6, the Trojans were moving the scoreboard 2 games at a time on each changeover.

There's no doubt that Hunter was a little dissapointed in his match at 2 singles tonight. He struggled to keep the ball in play against Fisk for the Cougars for most of the first set. He was able to take an early lead in the second and things looked promising. However, the momentum had shifted back to fisk near the end of the second set as Hunter was put into a set tiebreak. He was able to claim the tiebreak for the set and force a 10-point tiebreak for the match. Hunter lead early in the tiebreak and the two players battled to 6-6 at the second changeover. The error bug returned at this point and Hunter wasn't able to get the W tonight. It was promising that he found the will to make a statement in the second set, but unfortunately it just wasn't his night tonight.

Hunter was able to get in the win column playing at 1 doubles with Jordan. The two were way too strong for the York opponents Stowe & Spears and the Trojan teammates played well and won the proset 8-2.

Our varsity reserves were very good tonight in handling the Cougars on the back courts. Wesley Matthews, Ben Barkley and Quincy Ghent recorded singles wins while doubles wins were courtesy of teams of Jonathan Patton & Collin Schroeder and Ben Leppard & Phillip Yommer.

Tomorrow we'll practice hard in preparation for next week's matchups with Gaffney and Nation Ford. I don't know what to expect from Gaffney other than they were good enough to beat York last week. I do know that we're going to have a big bullseye on our backs from Nation Ford after we beat them at their place two weeks ago. We know they weren't happy about that and we better be ready to play our best.

Go Trojans!

Location: York HS
Result: Northwestern 6, York 1

Singles
1: Seth Russell def Chris Suggs 6-2, 6-1
2: Jensen Fisk (Y) def Hunter Love 6-1, 6-7, 10-8
3: Drayton Wade def Kyle Spears 6-1, 6-0
4: John Clark def Nathan Patrick 6-2, 6-0
5: Jordan Beaver def Andrew Stowe 6-0, 6-0

Doubles
1: Love/Beaver def Spears/Stowe 8-2
2: Collins Mauldin/Chris Cassidy def Charles Womble/Terry Doan 6-1, 6-0

Trojan/Stallion Invitational Day 2

2010-03-20T18:38:00.004-04:00

Although we had about the most ideal playing weather this morning in our matchup with Fort Mill, the day started out a little dissapointing for the Trojans against our region rival. The loss to Fort Mill & subsequent victory over York in the 3rd place match gives us an overall record of 5-1 and a 2-1 mark in region 3-AAAA.

We'll get back after it on Monday and Wednesday in practice. After a 5 match week over 6 days, we're only going to practice Monday & Wednesday and play our match at York on Tuesday. The majority of our team will be at Model UN on Thursday & Friday trying to bring back the title from...Fort Mill :(

Tournament Box Scores:

Result: Fort Mill 4, Northwestern 2
Singles
1: Tyler Davis def Seth Russell 3-6, 6-3, 10-3
2: Chase Lovins def Hunter Love 6-2, 6-2
3: Andres Leon def Drayton Wade 6-1, 6-0
4: John Clark (N) def Nick DiMatteo 6-1, 6-3
5: Jordan Beaver (N) def Grant Jordan 6-1, 6-0
Doubles
1: DP
2: Alex Masters/Clay Bullard def Michael Baldwin/Chris Cassidy 2-6, 7-5, 10-7

Third Place Match
Result: Northwestern 7, York 0
Singles
1: Seth Russell def Jensen Fisk 6-1, 6-0
2: Hunter Love def Kyle Spears 6-0, 6-1
3: Drayton Wade def Nathan Patrick 6-1, 6-1
4: John Clark def Andrew Stowe 6-1, 6-1
5: Jordan Beaver def Charles Womble 6-0, 6-0
Doubles
1: Chris Cassidy/Michael Baldwin def Patrick/Stowe 8-7(1)
2: Tyler Leonard/Daniel Hawkins def Patrick Newberry/Terry Duan 6-0, 6-0

Championship
Result: Fort Mill 6, Westside 0
Singles
1: Tyler Davis def Stephen Patterson 7-5, 6-1
2: Chase Lovins def Brooks Ballantine 6-2, 6-0
3: Andres Leon def Blake Peoples 6-0, 6-1
4: Nick DiMatteo def Bryce Rosenbaum 4-6, 6-3, 10-8
5: Grant Jordan def Brandon Lowe 6-2, 6-4
Doubles
1: DNP
2: Alex Masters/Cory Huckaby def Cylan Brissey/Chris Joseph 8-2

Tournament MVP: Tyler Davis, Fort Mill #1 Singles
Tournament Sportsmanship Award: Kyle Spears, York #2 Singles

Tournament Records:
Fort Mill 3-0
Westside 2-1
Northwestern 2-1
York 1-2
Byrnes 1-2
South Pointe 0-3

Champion: Fort Mill
Runner Up: Westside

Jordan Beaver returns a shot during the Trojan/Stallion Invitational. Jordan is undefeated at line 5 singles this season for the Trojans.

Trojan / Stallion Invitational Day 1

2010-03-19T21:55:00.006-04:00

We took care of business this afternoon in our first match with a 5 to 1 decision over Byrnes. We'll face Fort Mill in the 2nd match for us tomorrow morning at 9AM. That match will count towards both the region 3-AAAA standings as well as the tournament. The winner of that match will play for the championship at 2PM & the loser will play for 3rd place. South Pointe & Byrnes will face off for 5th place at 2PM over at South Pointe.

Here are today's summaries of all matches:

Friday's results from Northwestern & South Pointe:

Location: South Pointe
Result: York 6, South Pointe 1
Singles
1: Jesnsen Fisk def Ian Sanford 6-4, 5-7, 10-8
2: Kyle Spears def Lukas Faris 6-0, 7-5
3: Nathan Patrick def Jonathan Hoover 1-6, 6-2, 10-3
4: Andrew Stowe def Preston Darby 6-4, 6-7, 10-8
5: Charles Womble def Cody Deyton 6-4, 6-7, 10-8
Doubles
1: Fisk/Patrick def Sanford/Lukas 8-2
2: Conner McCoy/Cody Deyton (S) def Patrick Newberry/Terry Doan 8-0

Location: South Pointe
Result: Westside 6, South Pointe 0
Singles
1: Stephen Patterson def Ian Sanford 6-0, 6-0
2: Brooks Ballentine def Lukas Faris 6-1, 6-2
3: Blake Peebles def Conner McCoy 6-1, 6-0
4: Bryce Rosenbaum def Jonathan Hoover 6-4, 6-4
5: Brandon Lowe def Preston Darby 3-6, 6-2, 10-3
Doubles
2: Cylan Brissey/Chris Joseph def Conner McCoy/Cody Deyton 8-5

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 5, Byrnes 1
Singles
1: Seth Russell def Rob Barber 6-0, 6-0
2: Jacob Chesney (B) def Hunter Love 3-6, 7-6, 10-7
3: Drayton Wade def Austin Green 6-0, 6-2
4: John Clark def Will Fortner 6-1, 6-1
5: Jordan Beaver def Markevis Kinard 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
2: Michael Baldwin/Chris Cassidy def Joey Wilson/Lewis Rast 7-5, 6-3

Location: Northwestern
Result: Fort Mill 4, Byrnes 3
Singles
1: Tyler Davis def Rob Barber 6-3, 6-3
2: Jacob Chesney (B) def Chase Lovins 6-1, 5-7, 10-8
3: Andres Leon def Austin Green 6-0, 6-0
4: Nick DiMatteo def Lewis Rast 6-3, 6-0
5: Markevis Kinard (B) def Grant Jordan 7-5, 6-2
Doubles
1: Barber/Chesney (B) def Davis/Lovins 8-6
2: Alex Masters/Cory Huckaby def Will Fortner/Joey Wilson 7-6, 4-6, 10-8

L to R: Collins, Betsy, Seth, Hunter, Jordan, John, Tyler, Michael, Chris, Ben B, Wesley, Key, Drayton, & Brian

Trojans Down Clover

2010-03-18T22:15:00.004-04:00

What a match that played out tonight at the Northwestern tennis courts tonight between the Trojans and the Eagles from Clover. It was another match that played out to the very end with multiple matches ending in match tiebreakers ended with another team win for the Trojans tonight. The win puts us at 3-0 overall and gives us a 2-0 mark in region 3-AAAA and the early first place position to ourselves.

Jordan Beaver played near flawless tennis tonight at 5 singles. He controlled the match from beginning to end against P Smith for the Eagles and was the first win for us tonight with a shut out score of 6-0, 6-0.

Seth Russell sent a statement to the entire region tonight with his performance tonight at 1 singles that he is the top player in the region this year. Decker from Clover had no answer for Seth's precision and power in the match and he claimed our second win by score of 6-1, 6-1 at the top spot.

The next match to finish was our 2 doubles team of Michael Baldwin and Chris Cassidy. The Eagles paired up last year's region player of the year, Altieri, with G Smith. Altieri is recovering from some shoulder problems that affect his ability to serve. However, he still plays terrific tennis with groundstrokes & net play and was too good for us tonight. The line dropped for us by score of 2-6, 2-6, but it is nothing for us to hang our heads about. The fact that Altieri played down in their lineup (which is completely legal how Clover did it) ended up working in our favor in the singles lines.

After these three matches finished we were ahead in the team match count 2 to 1. Hunter Love and Drayton Wade had claimed first sets at 2 and 3 singles by identical 6-2 margins. John Clark had dropped a long and tightly contested first set 6-4. I liked our chances at this point, but I was still nervous as all three matches were having close fought second sets.

John was able to win his second set 6-2, while Hunter and Drayton each dropped theirs. All three went into tiebreakers at nearly the same time. The first to finish was Hunter which unfortunately did not go in our favor and the match was now knotted 2 all. John was able to win his tiebreak for the line 4 win to push us back ahead 3 to 2. And then there was only Drayton left on the court.

The first two changeovers in the line 3 tiebreak were fairly tight, but Drayton trailed 5-7 at this point. Deahl of Clover looked to take control as the momentum swayed his way and he had two match points against Drayton as the score went against us 7-9. From there on out, it was all D-Wade. He won the next four points to give himself the win at line 3 and the Trojans the match.

We posted a shutout against the varsity reserves from Clover. Collins Mauldin won 8-3, Tyler Leonard 8-2, and Daniel Hawkins 8-0. Unfortunately, Clover only had ten players and we took forfeit wins for Key Barkley and Wesley Matthews.

We don't have time to rest much after this exciting match tonight. Byrnes will be at our courts for the first round matchup in the Trojan/Stallion Invitational tomorrow at 2PM. We then play Fort Mill Saturday morning at 9AM for our last round robin match to determine whether we play for 1st, 3rd, or 5th place in the 2PM Saturday final round. I know the boys are hungry to play for 1st, as am I.

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 4, Clover 2

1s: Seth Russell (N) def Will Decker 6-1, 6-1
2s: Tucker DeLoach (C) def Hunter Love 2-6, 6-3, 10-4
3s: Drayton Wade (N) def Nick Deahl 6-2, 5-7, 11-9
4s: John Clark (N) def JC Dougherty 4-6, 6-2, 10-6
5s: Jordan Beaver (N) def Patrick Smith 6-0, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Chase Altieri/Garrett Smith (C) def Michael Baldwin/Chris Cassidy 6-2, 6-2

Records: Northwestern 3-0, 2-0 Region 3AAAA, Clover 2-1, 1-1 Region 3AAAA

Trojans Win First Region Match over Nation Ford

2010-03-16T22:05:00.003-04:00

We traveled up I77 to tangle with the Falcons of Nation Ford, a team that took both matches off of us last year and finished a spot ahead of us in the region standings. We showed up to play from the top to bottom of the lineup & claimed 3 straight set wins as well as a win in third set tiebreak to take the match.

Seth Russell played as well as he has all season at 1 singles against Ott of Nation Ford. The first set was slanted heavily in Seth's favor and was closed out quickly. The second set played pretty even until Seth lead at 4-3 & closed out the match with two straight games for our first line win of the night.

John Clark was next to clear the courts and was also victorious at 4 singles to give us a 2-0 lead in the team match. John went up early in the first set and had to fight off a late charge from McGlohon for the Falcons. The second set started even and John pulled away with it at the end for a 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Jordan Beaver was the next to finish at 5 singles. Jordan's match with Lengel from Nation Ford had a lot of lengthy rallies that Jordan was able to come out on top of more often than not. The match score was 6-3, 6-3 in our favor and we now lead 3-0 in the team match.

At this point, we had two matches go into match tiebreakers at nearly the same time and another in a long second set. Drayton Wade had won a first set 6-3 over Morris of Nation Ford, but dropped a second set by the same score. Our 2 doubles team of Collins Mauldin and Michael Baldwin had won the first set 6-4 before falling behind early in the second set. They were able to come back and closed the gap in the second, but dropped it 5-7 to McLelland & Hoberek for the Falcons.

Also still in action was the marathon match of the night with Hunter Love at 2 singles against Randar for Nation Ford. Hunter had played a long first set that he claimed 7-5 before falling behind early in the second.

The doubles match finished first and Michael and Collins were able to clinch the team match with our 4th win of the night. They went up early in the tiebreaker and never looked back as they closed it out 10-3.

Drayton finished next, followed by Hunter and they each dropped tiebreakers that would have been icing on the cake for our team tonight. Neither can say that they had a bad loss as they performed well against respectable opponents. I know that each will be eager for a rematch on April 1st.

We ran the table in reserve matches as we had doubles wins by Chris Cassidy & Tyler Leonard as well as Key Barkley & Wesley Matthews. Daniel Hawkins was also victorious in singles.

Our next opponent will be another battle on Thursday night as we host the first of 4 straight matches at our courts. Clover is first to come to us on Thursday and will surely be a good test to see where we stand in our region. Getting off to a 2-0 region start would be a big step toward reaching our goal of a region title this season.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Nation Ford
Result: Northwestern 5, Nation Ford 2

1s: Seth Russell (NW) def Madison Ott (NF) 6-2, 6-3
2s: Danny Randar (NF) def Hunter Love (NW) 5-7, 6-3, 10-6
3s: Tyler Morris (NF) def Drayton Wade (NW) 3-6, 6-3, 10-4
4s: John Clark (NW) def Brandon McGlohon (NF) 6-4, 6-3
5s: Jordan Beaver (NW) def Kyle Lengel (NF) 6-3, 6-3

1d: Russell/Love (NW) def Ott/Randar (NF) 8-6
2d: Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (NW) def ALex McLelland/Paul Hoberek (NF) 6-4, 5-7, 10-3

Match v. Fort Mill Cancelled Tonight

2010-03-11T14:09:00.002-05:00

Due to inclement weather, our match at Fort Mill has been cancelled.

This match will not be rescheduled since we are scheduled to play Fort Mill next Saturday March 20th in the Trojan/Stallion Invitational at 9:00AM and again on April 20th at 5:00PM. The tournament match will count as our first region match against Fort Mill.

The April 20th match will now be played at Fort Mill since they are playing at our courts in the tournament.

Next week is looking like good weather and we'll need it as we have 5 matches to play. We'll travel Tuesday to Nation Ford and then host Clover on Thursday. The Trojan/Stallion Invitational will put us against Byrnes HS at 2:00 PM on Friday. We'll have the tournament banquet at 8:00PM that night and play Fort Mill in the morning. The finals round will put us against either South Pointe, York, or Westside HS at 2:00PM on Saturday.

Go Trojans!

Trojans get off to Good Start to the Regular Season

2010-03-08T20:12:00.002-05:00

Our trip over to South Pointe was a pleasant one for the Trojans tonight. I was happy that we were able to claim all the matches and do so by playing our style and not letting up after we got big leads. I'm really looking forward to the next few matches against our region opponents, starting with Fort Mill on Thursday.

Hunter Love dropped 2 games in the first set before posting a shutout in the second at #2 singles and claimed the first line for us tonight.

The #2 doubles team of Collins Mauldin & Michael Baldwin dropped a game per set tonight and were the second team off the courts with a victory.

Drayton Wade had little trouble at #3 singles tonight and was able to claim a 6-0, 6-1 win for our third win of the night.

Jordan Beaver also only dropped one game in taking a 6-1, 6-0 victory at #5 singles. Jordan's win clinched the team victory tonight.

Seth Russell had little trouble tonight at #1 singles and controlled the pace of the match from beginning to end. His 6-1, 6-1 win gave us our 5th win of the night.

John Clark had some long points that made his match last longer than any of the initial 6 matches. His score was slanted in his favor heavily, but the points took good patience to control.

With the match in hand, we played a proset for the #1 doubles point. Jordan and Hunter were paired together and easily dismantled the South Pointe team 8-0.

Fort Mill is the next team on our radar and it will take a total team effort to take down the Yellow Jackets at their courts, where they have not dropped a region match in the last three seasons. We have the talent to make that happen this year, but it will only be possible with consistent good play from top to bottom as we had tonight.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: South Pointe
Result: Northwestern 7, South Pointe 0

1s: Seth Russell (N) def Ian Sanford 6-1, 6-1
2s: Hunter Love (N) def Jonathan Hoover 6-2, 6-0
3s: Drayton Wade (N) def Preston Darby 6-0, 6-1
4s: Johnathan Clark (N) def Conner McCoy 6-0, 6-1
5s: Jordan Beaver (N) def Cody Deyton 6-1, 6-0

1d: Love/Beaver (N) def Sanford/Hoover 8-0
2d: Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (N) def Lukas Faris/Jake Mitchell 6-1, 6-1

Records: Northwestern 1-0, South Pointe 0-1

Trojans drop 4-3 Decision to Boiling Springs

2010-03-03T20:43:00.003-05:00

On a cold night in Rock Hill, the Trojans took the courts against the Bulldogs from Boiling Springs in a pre-season contest. It proved to be an exciting match to be a part of even if the result didn't fall our way. It should be noted that I have coached for three years now with the guys & girls program and this is the first match or scrimmage I have had be tied 3-3 and go to the decisive #1 doubles match.

Seth Russell took on Lyles from Boiling Springs, a highly ranked player in the state of SC. Seth Fell behind early and dropped the first set 2-6. The two traded games for a while in the second set before Lyles pulled away to take the #1 singles match.

Hunter Love played another highly ranked player in White for the Bulldogs. After the match, White made a point to come tell me that Hunter played really well and he had him frustrated throughout the match as he was unable to win any points easily.

Drayton Wade played a dominant match at #3 singles against J Uy. The first set got lopsided quickly in Drayton's favor and he closed it out 6-2 with little trouble. Drayton continued to roll through the second before J Uy made a late charge to close the gap. Keeping his cool, Drayton closed the set out 6-4 and showed great poise by not getting frustrated by the comeback.

The most exciting match of the night was the battle at # 4 between Johnathan Clark and B Uy. John and B Uy traded games all the way into a set tiebreak which John was able to win 7-4. B Uy was clearly frustrated in the 2nd set and began throwing spin shots, drop shots and other junk balls John's way. It did the trick on him and B Uy took the second set to force a match 10-point tiebreaker. As I usually see when players resort to junk shots, B Uy lost momentum in the tiebreak as John rolled to a decisive 10-3 victory at the 4 singles spot.

Jordan Beaver had a terribly frustrating opponent to deal with in Hendrix for the Bulldogs. Their player didn't hit real hard, didn't serve real hard, and didn't do much to force the match. What he did was not miss very much. Jordan hung in their in two close sets, but came up short in the end.

Our #2 doubles team of Michael Baldwin & Collins Mauldin came on very strong in the end. After an even 1st set that they won 6-4, the duo took off to claim the second by score of 6-1 over Plummer & Morris for Boiling Springs.

We had to call on Seth & Hunter at #1 doubles tonight to go for the team win with the score knotted at 3 all. The Bulldog senior-duo of Lyles & White have played the #1 doubles spot at Boiling Springs for several years now and compete in many off season tournaments together. That experience paid off in the end as they clinched the Bulldogs victory over us. What this makes me hope is that Hunter and Seth work together this off season as they could easily play at the level of Lyles and White with some more experience.

We'll get back to work tomorrow to get ready for our cross town rival South Pointe on Monday and our first region match at Fort Mill on Thursday. Fort Mill is the defending region champion and the team we are looking to take down first in our quest to win Region 3-AAAA this season.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Boiling Springs 4, Northwestern 3

1s: Chase Lyles (B) def Seth Russell (N) 6-2, 6-4
2s: Corey White (B) def Hunter Love (N) 6-2, 6-0
3s: Drayton Wade (N) def Johnny Uy (B) 6-2, 6-4
4s: John Clark (N) def Benny Uy (B) 7-6(4) 2-6, 10-3
5s: Dalton Hendrix (B) def Jordan Beaver (N) 6-4, 6-4

1d: Lyles/White (B) def Russell/Love (N) 6-2, 6-1
2d: Michael Baldwin/Collins Mauldin (N) def Matt Plummer/Drew Morris (B) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles tandem of Michael Baldwin (left) and Collins Mauldin.

Spring USTA Tournaments

2010-02-27T12:58:00.005-05:00

I mentioned to the boys back in November that we will rarely have any Friday practice this spring. My rationale behind this is that I would like the boys to participate in USTA tournaments in the spring. Below, I will provide a list of tournaments available within a 2 hour drive from school. I would be thrilled if the girls had a high participation in these events.

Guidelines for picking tournament:
Level 5 tournaments are intended for players new to tournaments (all players not ranked top 100)
Level 4's are intended for players with some tournament experience (top 10 players in our programs ranked lower than 50)
Level 3's are intended for competitive tournament players (all-region players)

Here's a list that can be found at http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/Schedule/Search.aspx

3/12 -3/14 Lexington (ID #704132510) Level 3
Spartanburg (ID #704109110) Level 3

3/19 - 3/21 Taylors (ID #704128510) Level 4 (Girls only - boys have our tournament at NHS)

3/20 Florence (ID # 704115910) Level 5 (Girls & Non-varsity boys)
Greenwood (ID # 704131110) Level 5 (Girls & Non-varsity boys)

3/26-3/28 Columbia (ID # 704111310) Level 4

4/2 - 4/4 Aiken (ID # 704104010) Level 4

4/2 Blythewood (ID # 704129510) Level 5

4/16 - 4/18 Rock Hill (ID # 704117310) Level 3

4/24 Columbia (ID # 704112010) Level 5

4/30 - 5/2 Blythewood (ID # 704111410) Level 4

5/1 Rock Hill (ID # 704124510) Level 5

5/7 - 5/9 Greenville (ID # 704107810) Level 4

5/14 - 5/16 Clover / River Hills (ID # 704101610) Level 3

5/22 - 5/24 Spartanburg (ID # 704133010) Level 3

5/23 Lexington (ID # 704122210) Level 5

5/28 - 5/30 Spartanburg (ID # 704125110) Level 3
Aiken (ID # 704126910) Level 4

6/12 - Rock Hill (ID # 704124410) Level 5

Trojans first spring scrimmage a success at Lancaster

2010-02-25T21:48:00.004-05:00

We ventured over to Lancaster to try our hand against some fresh competition after three weeks of preseason practice. Our boys were head and shoulders above the Lancaster team as we were able to take home wins at every match against the Bruins.

We'll get back to practice Monday to prepare for Boiling Springs, last year's #10 team in the state and a 3rd round playoff squad. I'm not sure how much of their team graduated, but I am assuming they will be a very competitive team and should show us how we stack up against some of the best competition in the state.

Go Trojans!

Northwestern 7, Lancaster 0
1s: Seth Russell def Ryan Dutton 6-0, 6-0
2s: Hunter Love def Tyler Watts 6-1, 6-0
3s: Drayton Wade def Peyton Brumfield 6-2, 6-0
4s: Johnathan Clark def Jason Plexico 6-2, 6-0
5s: Jordan Beaver def Bobby Dukes 6-2, 6-2

1d: Brian Fitzpatrick / Chris Cassidy def Dutton / Dukes 8-1
2d: Michael Baldwin / Collins Mauldin def John Rey / Evan Simpson 6-3, 6-3
ex: Tyler Leonard / Key Barkley def Lanc #8 & #9 8-1
Johnathan Clark prepares to serve in the second set of his victory at #4 singles against Lancaster

Boy's Initial Varsity Team Named Tonight

2010-02-11T19:54:00.004-05:00

After two weeks of playing continuous round robins against each other, we were able to name our initial Varsity roster. The following boys were named to the varsity team based on their results:

1) Hunter Love
2) Seth Russell
3) Jordan Beaver / Drayton Wade (Monday challenge pending)
5) Brian Fitzpatrick / Johnathan Clark (tie)
7) Chris Cassidy
8) Michael Baldwin
9) Collins Mauldin

This Varisty team will grow throughout the spring as the other boys continue to battle it out for a chance to challenge up to the varsity roster. I am hoping that we have a solid group of 12-14 players by mid-April.

Congratulations to the boys selected. To the boys not selected yet, keep working hard to post results and I will give you your shot. This should be a good spring with a group of 20 boys I am excited to have a part of our program.

Go Trojans!

Boys Meeting Recap

2009-11-17T20:44:00.003-05:00

It was good to see everyone tonight. A lot of familiar faces and several new ones. I am super excited to get into boys season. We have the ability on our boys team to win Region 3-AAAA this year. I hope I have motivated you all to get to work preparing over the holiday break.

I provided my cell phone number & email address. I want all players to have my number. If an emergency comes up, I want them to contact me as soon as possible if it affects their attendance of tennis stuff.

I also introduced Betsy Creech to the boys. Betsy played #3 for the girls team and is looking to work more year round on her game. She will be helping out with scorekeeping stuff for me during practice and matches and also will be participating in drills and practice matches to improve her game this spring.

Eligibility: This is a 3 part process. 1) Grades, 2) Physical, 3) Birth Certificate. See your guidance counselor if you have any doubts about your academic eligibility. The physical form was available at the meeting tonight, but can be accessed at northwesterntrojans.org under the "files" section. If you haven't turned a physical form in to the Northwestern Athletic Office since May 2009, a new one is required. A copy of a birth certificate is required to be on file. If you have played a sport at Northwestern, we have it. If this is your first season, turn in a copy along with the physical. If a physical or birth certificate copy is not received in the athletic office by February 1, you will not be able to participate this season.

Try Outs: This will be a 5-day process starting Monday February 1, 2010. We will try out Mon-Thur only, so if weather cooperates we should have our initial varsity team decided by Monday February 8. These sessions will be 3 hours long from 4:00pm-7:00pm.

To try out, you will need to be at all 5 days to compete in a continuous round robin. A varsity team of 9-10 players will be selected at the end of these 5 days. Players not on varsity will continue to play daily round robins all season. If a player is able to stay at the top of the round robin groups for several consecutive days, he will probably get a chance to challenge for a spot on the varsity team. Once a player is on varsity, they will stay on varsity. I am hoping to have 12-13 varsity players by the end of the season.

Practice: Once the try out process is decided, practice will be from 4pm-6pm Mon-Thu. Practice is mandatory for all players and very few exceptions will be made. I am looking for a commitment from the boys for 8 hours per week in the preseason and some more time once matches start. If you cannot commit to this, the season will probably not be successful for you or the team.

If a varsity player misses practice, they will forfeit any challenge match they were involved in and sit out the next match. If a second practice is missed, the player will sit out the next two matches. Additional misses will likely result in dismissal from the team. Being late to practice will be treated as a missed practice, but if a player is late they can still defend their position in a challenge match, but match penalty will still happen.

If a non-varsity player misses practice, they will forfeit all challenge opportunities that day. After 3 misses, that player will likely be dismissed from the team. I really hope that these scenarios do not take place. I do take attendance very seriously and believe that hard work at practice makes the difference in how good we perform in matches.

Matches: We will play approxiamately 14 regular season matches plus 1 or 2 pre-season scrimmages. We are also co-hosting a tournament on March 19 & 20 with South Pointe HS that will involve 8 schools from all over the state. I will likely have our varsity match schedule complete in January, if not sooner. Matches are typically on Tuesday & Thursdays at 5:00, but some will fall on a Monday or Wednesday. The season runs from early March until early May.

Rules: I will be having players & parents sign and agree to rules at try outs. Most of them will be simple - show up on time, work hard, and have a good attitude. However, some of them will be different than other sports. One, we will be wearing practice tee-shirts and look like a team at practice this year as all the quality teams at school do. Second, all players must wear tennis court specific shoes any time they are at practice or in a match. Third, varsity players must wear ALL BLACK shorts for matches. Shorts will be available for purchase when we do a team order the first week of February.

Shoes / Uniforms: Prices for shoes have been quoted previously and I posted them again tonight. Nike Air Ballistic 1.3's are $85, Nike Air Ballistic 1.2's are $60, and Nike Air Court del Mar's are $52. The Ballistic's are very durable and will hold up for an entire season. The del Mar's are a good shoe, but less durable and may wear out near the end of season. If a player needs shoes and wants to take advantage of our 35% discount on Nike, they will need to take a check or cash to the athletic office and give it to Rose Baker, the athletic secretary. I will be placing the order Friday afternoon so they will hopefully arrive before school lets out. There will only be one order placed so if you need shoes and like Nike, take advantage of this.

Varsity uniforms will be the same as last year and varsity players will get 1 purple and 1 white jersey. I have ordered more smalls of each since they ran a little big last year.

We will also do a clothing order the first week of February to order sweats, tee-shirts, long sleeve t-shirts and shorts. I will require the players to order 3 t-shirts to wear at practice for $30. All other items will be optional, but tend to be popular for players and parents. I generally only do one order for the group so make sure you get everything that you want.

Questions: The only group question that was asked was more to point out the Tennis Center is putting together weekly clinics for the winter and spring. In the past, I have done conditioning in January before practice starts. I am not doing that this year. My expectation is that players will show up to day 1 of try outs in the best shape and at the top of their tennis ability. I would like the boys to be practicing tennis all December & January on their own. They will need to be ready to play 3 hours of tennis for 5 straight days at the highest level to which they are capable.

Call or email if you have questions.

Go Trojans!

Girls Tennis Banquet

2009-11-15T21:40:00.007-05:00

Thank you to all the parents, players, and school administrators for attending our end of the year banquet. A special thanks to Mr & Mrs Cox for organizing the event in an ideal venue at St John's United Methodist Church.

We began the evening with a wonderful blessing courtesy of Mr Faulkner before a feast fit for our queens of the court. The families of Northwestern tennis again did a top notch job in preparing our pot luck dinner. The awards presentations began after dinner.

I first off thanked Coach Warren and the Trojan Club for all the support of the tennis programs at Northwestern. We are truly lucky to have such a wonderful athletic director who does a lot of things behind the scenes that don't get recognized. He also gives me a lot of flexibility in running the program the way I want to and is supportive of us in every aspect.

I also thanked Dr & Mrs Edwards for assisting the program with our new court numbers this year. Dr Edwards and I spent a couple hours putting them up around the courts back in September and they truly add a touch of class to our facility.

I also thanked the Surgical Specialists of the Carolinas as well as Rock Hill Radiology Associates for their support in providing us with financial contributions that made our new windscreen purchase possible. I believe that we have the finest tennis facility in the state of any program that has school courts. Without the financial assistance of these two companies, this purchase would not have been possible. If you run into Dr Schroeder or Dr Leonard, please thank them. But also, the funds from football concessions over the past two seasons was a huge asset as well so thank you to the parents who helped out back in September.

Our first player awards went to our non-letter winning players this year. This group allowed our team to have tremendous depth this year. Good teams in any sports have depth and it is my belief that this depth will allow us to be successful for many years to come. Congratulations and thank you to the following young ladies:

- Natalie Hageman
- Hannah Cramer
- Emily Cramer
- Randi Honeycutt
- Karlee Fox
- Caroline Herron
- Alexis Peddy
- Olivia Huckabee

Letters were then presented to the players who contributed to the varsity team this year in matches. This group's results on the court representing our team resulted in a team that again qualified to the state tournament in 4A girls tennis:

- Chandler Green (3rd Letter)
- Maggie Orr (3rd Letter)
- Betsy Creech (3rd Letter)
- Courtney Cox (2nd Letter)
- Lauren Cox (1st Letter)
- Emily Edwards (1st Letter)
- Hillary Tindall (2nd Letter & Captain Pin)
- MC Faulkner (1st Letter & Captain Pin)
- Erin Brooks (1st Letter)
- Mia Barber (Manager pin)

Individual awards were then presented to the girls as voted for by their teammates.

Most Valuable Player - The player who the girls felt was most valuable to our team on and off the court. This player made the biggest impact to our team during matches, on the sidelines, and in practice: Chandler Green

Most Improved Player - The player the girls felt made the biggest improvement in their game. The players could vote for who improved the most from the beginning of the year to the end or from last season to this season: MC Faulkner

Best Practice Player - The player who worked the hardest each day in practice. This player not only worked hard themself, but worked to make others around them better: Hillary Tindall

Coach's Award - I hand out an annual award to a player who is coachable in all aspects of the game. This player sets a great example to their teammates not purely by their ability, but mostly by their work ethic and willingness to learn. This is a player who makes every effort to execute strategies in their matches and learns from both their successes and failures to improve themself: Lauren Cox

I will certainly miss our seniors as they move on to their next great challenges in life. It has certainly been a privilege to get to know each of you. I do make a promise to my seniors that I will always be available to you if you need any further assistance in life, being letters of recommendation, networking, or any other advice I can provide. Most of all, I hope you stay in touch with the program and remain assets to us after your graduation.

For our returning fourteen girls, our future is bright at Northwestern. I encourage any of you that know of athletic 7th, 8th, or 9th graders to encourage them to learn the game of tennis. We have a strong core of sophomores that will be juniors returning next year along with one senior. The program needs talented younger players that are willing to take the time and put in the work that it takes to become a good tennis player. Please look to share your experiences with younger student athletes that can fill this role for us in the future.

I also mentioned what I expect as far as off season tennis work for our returning players. A pro player that I met over the past few weeks told me that she believes that the difference in a tennis match between two equal players playing at a high level will be decided by three factors:

1) Fitness
2) Quickness
3) Mental Toughness

In a nutshell, a good tennis player must be a great athlete. Take pride in becoming athletic and continue to work out with agility drills, jump rope, and quick sprints. Get some 1-2 mile runs incorporated into your workout as well. The player in better physical shape has an advantage

Mental toughness, in my opinion, is the ability to feel comfortable in seemingly uncomfortable situations on the court. I think the only way to get mentally tough is by continuing to put yourself in competitive situations. Whether you are in a league or travel to play in tournaments, match-play experience is crucial. If you play more matches, you will become more comfortable in match situations. Morgan Chumney from Fort Mill has played 85 (50-35) tournament matches over the past 12 months. It shouldn't be a surprise that she stays cool and calm on the court.

Also, in practicing during the off season I think that you should set a goal of the following:

1) Work with an instructor once per week, whether in a clinic or private lesson
2) Play a practice match against someone near your ability level
3) Play a practice match against someone slightly below your ability level
4) Compete in one tournament per month, or junior tennis leagues in the spring and summer

I am moving into the boy's season for the spring. I would like to see girls come out to participate in the boy's varsity practices. However, I do ask that if you plan to come practice with the guys, that you have a goal for practicing with us. If you are practicing for an upcoming tournament, let me know and you will have priority over girls that just want to practice for fun. Call, text, or email me before you come out so I can confirm we have 3 or less girls at a boy's practice (off-season maximum).

Good season Lady Trojans!

(L to R: Chandler Green - Most Valuable; MC Faulkner - Most Improved; Hillary Tindall - Best Practice Player; Lauren Cox - Coach's Award)

Trojans Season Ended by Bruins in 1st Round of Playoffs

2009-10-28T22:22:00.006-04:00

We had high hopes of advancing this year in the playoffs, but it wasn't to be as the Lancaster Bruins played a strong match from top to bottom and handed us a 5-1 defeat. The loss eliminates us from the state AAAA playoffs and leaves us with a final overall record of 6-8 on the season.

Chandler Green played really well against Hegler for the Bruins. Hegler has an aggressive game that was a little overpowering for Chandler tonight. The score may have been a little lopsided, but I was proud of Chandler for giving Hegler a run for her money. Chandler has the potential to beat these types of players with some off season work on her serving and forward and backward speed.

Maggie Orr put the first set of her match at 2 tonight into a tiebreaker before coming up on the short end against Gardner. The second set was tight as well as the Bruins claimed it 6-4. There was little that seperated these two tonight other than maybe just the one year of experience for Gardner who is a junior. I am hopeful that Maggie plays competitively in the off season to gain the experience and confidence that it takes to overcome this type of opponent. She has the heart and the talent as we all can see, but she still needs to put the work in and play competitive matches.

Betsy Creech had a rough go at it tonight at 3 singles. Hicks of Lancaster is a much improved player over the past year and has committed herself to improving her game. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Hicks is the #2 player at Lancaster next season. Betsy also needs a little more experience and confidence to compete with this type of player next year. Hicks is no faster in a footrace than Betsy, but her reaction time puts her a step ahead on each shot. If Betsy can force herself to anticipate better, she can play with anyone around town.

Courtney Cox had a tough first set when her opponent, Blanton of Lancaster, just couldn't miss. At the same time that Blanton was hot, Courtney had trouble making good contact and sustaining rallies. She really started clicking early in the second and went up 5-3 to have me start thinking about a tiebreak strategy. Unfortunately, Blanton picked herself back up to claim the second set with four straight games. It was another case of experience overcoming the Trojan singles players tonight. I look forward to Courtney becoming competitive in the off season so she is able to finish out sets like she could have tonight and put herself in a position for success.

Lauren Cox has come a long way in the past year, from a player that was 13th in the ladder last year to a dependable #5 this year. She was defeated by Gilreath of the Bruins squad at 5 singles 6-1, 6-2 tonight. Gilreath is another player that plays year round tennis and competes in the local USTA tournaments. Lauren can no doubtedly compete with Gilreath if she continues to work as hard over the next 10 months as she has the last 12. Lauren has the competitiveness in her to rise to a very high level.

What a great night it was for our senior captains Hillary Tindall & MC Faulkner. I pulled the trigger a little earlier than I had anticipated when I saw how behind we had fallen in the singles matches. The senior Trojans claimed our lone line win for us tonight by score of 6-4, 1-6, 10-6. They played a team that clearly had a stronger player and they wisely decided to attack the lesser of the two. I have spent two seasons with Hillary and I certainly will miss her next year. She has been a tremendous role model to the younger players which was the biggest asset this team had this year. MC played just this season for us and rose through the ladder from as low as #11 up to #7 where she ended her career. I have said it many times and she's probably tired of hearing me say it, but...why didn't you pick up a racquet a few years ago MC? You will also be truly missed by us and I am thankful for the small amount of time I was blessed with to work with you.

I told the girls on the bus ride home that this has been the most enjoyable season for me as a coach. I probably won't remember this group as having a 6-8 record and finishing 4th in the region. I will forever remember the hard work that they put in from day one to make themselves better.

And that doesn't end with just these varsity players. Erin Brooks & Emily Edwards were out at the courts nearly every day this summer & they rocketed to near the top of the ladder. The Cramer girls have come light years from where they were when they started playing last year. I see them and think about what Natalie could become if she keeps working hard. Caroline Herron, one of our youngest players, shot up through the ladder this year further than I would have thought possible when you look at the ages of the players she passed up. Alexis worked super hard every practice and is someone that could really make a difference next year as a player and leader. One of my favorite parts of practice was to see Randi & Karlee in warm up jogs competing with each other to finish first. Both of their athletic abillity is great, but their willingness to work is what will make each of them a success.

So many memories you young ladies gave me & for that I will forever be thankful...Coach

Box Score:

Location: Lancaster
Result: Lancaster 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Lyndsey Hegler (L) def Chandler Green 6-2, 6-1
2s: Morgan Gardner (L) def Maggie Orr 7-6, 6-4
3s: Sara Hicks (L) def Betsy Creech 6-1, 6-0
4s: McKenzie Blanton (L) def Courtney Cox 6-0, 7-5
5s: Sarah Gilreath (L) def Lauren Cox 6-1, 6-2

2d: Hillary Tindall/MC Faulkner (N) def Carley Adams/Katherine Lalla 6-4, 1-6, 10-6

1st Round Playoff Match Postponed until Wednesday 10/28

2009-10-27T13:20:00.003-04:00

As expected, our match against Lancaster to open the playoffs has been postponed. We will travel to USC-L tomorrow for the match. Schedule of Events for tomorrow:

Uniforms: White top, purple skirt
- Bring sweats to wear before and after (forecast is hi 75, low 53)
4:00 - snack
4:15 - bus departure
5:00 - Stretch and warm up at Lancaster
5:30 - Match starts

We will cancel practice for today. I'm comfortable that we have had 5 good practices in a row to get ready for this match. Taking the day off will probably be a good thing. However, I make the following request of the #1-9 girls:

1) Get any and all homework completed tonight that you know is due over the next three days. We have a good chance to advance to play the winner of Easley/Spartanburg and could have two long nights ahead of us. Don't get behind in your school work.

2) Spend 15-20 minutes tonight doing some form of physical activity. If your parents own a stationary bike or treadmill - use it. If you have a gym membership - go there. If you have neither, run up and down the steps at your house. Be creative, just get your legs working and make yourself sweat a little. Do it for your team, all 9 of you need to be ready to make a difference tomorrow.

3) If you have friends on the volleyball or cheer teams - send them a good luck text. Cheer has their region meet at the school tonight & volleyball is traveling to Blythewood for their first round match.

Go Trojans!

Two Trojans Named to 2009 All Region 3-AAAA Team

2009-10-23T12:57:00.010-04:00

The coaches of our region met on Thursday night at Clover high school with three tasks in front of us. We were to confirm playoff seedings, nominate 5 players for possible acceptance to the AAAA-AAA state singles tournament, and to select the 12 member all region team.

The Trojans were confirmed to be in 4th place of the overall standings which are below:

1) Clover (10-0)

2) Nation Ford (8-2)

3) Fort Mill (6-4)

4) Northwestern (4-6)

5) York (1-9)

6) Gaffney (1-9)

SC AAAA State Playoff Bracket: http://www.schsl.org/2009%20brackets/gte%20aaaa.pdf

Chandler Green & Maggie Orr were both selected to the 2009 All Region team in recognition of their athletic achievments on the courts this year as well as exemplifying good sportsmanshipp on and off the court. The two girls shared duties this year as the Trojans #1 & #2 singles players and teamed up to be the #1 doubles team when needed. Overall, the Trojan girls provided a strong presence at the top of our lineup as they combined for an overall 11-9 singles record against the other schools' top players. I feel that it is due to these two young women that we were able to qualify for the state playoffs and maintain our lead over both York and Gaffney. The All Region Team was as follows:

1) Kate Stewart - Clover*

2) Morgan Chumney - Fort Mill**

3) Ashley Trull - Nation Ford**

4) Chandler Green - Northwestern**

5) Molly Mieskiewicz - Clover**

6) Mady Katz - Fort Mill

7) Maggie Orr - Northwestern

8) Faith Daniel - Clover

9) Olivia Whitener - Nation Ford

10) Rylee Smith - Nation Ford

11) Sarah Tourville - Nation Ford

12) Jesse Cook - Gaffney

Coach of the Year: Phil Wingard - Clover

Co-Players of the Year : Kate Stewart - Clover, Morgan Chumney, Fort Mill

Rookie of the Year: Anna Mieskiewicz - Clover

*Automatic qualifier to state singles tournament

**Submitted for at-large consideration for state singles tournament

There are 8 regions in 4A & 8 Regions in 3A. Therefore, there will be 16 at-large spots handed out among those 16 regions. We feel that Chumney of Fort Mill has an excellent shot at getting one of those 16 slots. It has been a few years since our region has gotten 2 qualifiers in the state singles draw so we are quite excited about the level of tennis that is being played in this part of the state this year.

Go Trojans!

Trojans Sweep Cougars to Close Out Regular Season

2009-10-19T21:39:00.005-04:00

York was a terrific host tonight to celebrate our last match of the region schedule and probably of the season. The 6 to 0 sweep of the Cougars gives us an overall record of 6-7 and we had a 4-6 record in our region. We finished in 4th place overall behind Clover, Nation Ford, and Fort Mill. York finished in a tie for 5th with Gaffney. We will very likely travel to Lancaster for the first round of the playoffs next Tuesday.

Courtney Cox was our first victory tonight with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Patrick of York at 4 singles. Sister Lauren Cox followed very shortly after with a 6-3, 6-2 win at 5 singles over Whitesides of York. Chandler Green took care of business at 2 singles with a 6-3, 6-2 win at 2 singles over Neely. Maggie Orr clinched the match with the decisive 4th team win at 1 singles over Mi Goss.

Betey Creech kept the sweep alive at 3 singles with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Ma Goss. Our senior captains Hillary Tindall & MC Faulkner completed the sweep of the Cougars with a 6-2, 6-2 doubles victory.

I really enjoyed York having us stay after for a cookout. I like that idea and I think it is something we should do in return for them next season. I also had a blast playing doubles with Chandler against Coach Clark of York and Neely. I let Chandler down in the end and we were taken out 8-6.

The regular season has come to a close for our reserve players. They ended on a strong note as we had wins at nearly every line including Emily Edwards 8-1, Erin Brooks 8-2, Alexis Peddy 8-1, Caroline Herron 8-0, Karlee Fox 8-0, Randi Honeycutt 8-1, Emily Cramer 8-0, and Hannah Cramer 8-6. Reserve players are no longer required to attend practice the next couple weeks as we prepare for playoffs. However, feel free to come out and play if you can make it.

Tomorrow will be time to get down to business and prepare for the playoffs. A 4 seed has defeated a 1 seed three times since 2000 in the AAAA state playoffs. I would like to be the 4th team to do that and I believe that we can. If the girls believe it, it can and will happen.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: York Comprehensive HS

Result: Northwestern 6, York 0

1s: Maggie Orr (N) def Michelle Goss 6-1, 6-3

2s: Chandler Green (N) def Brandi Neely 6-3, 6-2

3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Mary Goss 6-3, 7-5

4s: Courtney Cox (N) def Katie Patrick 6-1, 6-2

5s: Lauren Cox (N) def Hannah Whitesides 6-3, 6-2

1d: DNP

2d: Hillary Tindall/MC Faulkner (N) def Allison Rogers/Kate Shirley 6-2, 6-2

Records: Northwestern 4-6 Region 3AAAA, York 1-9 Region 3AAAA

Next Week & Playoffs

2009-10-17T12:10:00.003-04:00

OK, here is where we are at as of right now:

Next Week...

Monday: All Players - @ York, 5pm (Senior Night / Cookout after), bus leaves at 4:15
- Players need to be at courts at 3:55pm
Tuesday: Top 8 & captains - Practice/Challenges 4-6
Wednesday: Top 8 & captains - Practice/Challenges 4-6*
Thursday: Top 8 & captains - Home v. Clover 5pm*
Friday: Top 8 & captains - Practice/Challenges 9am-11am

Week of 10/26-10/30...

Monday: Top 8 & captains - Practice/Challenges 4-6
Tuesday: Playoffs 1st Round - @ Lancaster or Blythewood 5pm
Wednesday: Top 8 & captains - Practice/Challenges 4-6 (if we advance)
Thursday: Playoffs 2nd Round - @ Winner of Region I (#2) or Region II (#3)

*The varsity match at home against Clover is very tentative. I am trying to get Indian Land to come to us on Wednesday night. Clover needs to play an additional match if they lose to Nation Ford and are tied for 1st place. I have offered to have them over to play us if we only have 1 match next week. Therefore, this match will only be played if Clover loses to Nation Ford and we are unable to schedule a home match with Indian Land. The York match Monday may very well be our final regular season match.

I told the girls at practice Thursday that the York match will be our final match as a whole team. However, I would very much like for all players to travel to our playoff matches. The strength we have in numbers could be the difference in cheering us on to victory in the playoffs. I certainly hope that all can come.

For the York match, we are still having a cookout afterwards. Originally, we were going to bring individual desserts. Since it is senior night, I am picking up cake to bring over for both teams. If each girl can just bring $3 each, this will cover all the costs for the cookout on our end.

I believe the Faulkner's have snacks for York & the Edwards were next up on the snack list. The Faulkner's can bring sport drinks & a very light snack on Monday since we are doing the cookout after. The Edwards will have either the Indian Land/Clover match or the playoff first round, whichever happens first. We'll draw straws for the playoffs after that.

Go Trojans!

Back to back Rainouts

2009-10-15T12:45:00.003-04:00

With yesterday & today both getting rained out, here is what our schedule will look like under two scenarios:

What I HOPE for:

Mon 10/19 - Home v. Boiling Springs
Tue 10/20 - at York/Cookout after
Wed 10/21 - Home v South Pointe 4:30, Home v. Rock Hill 6:00 (Senior Night)
Thu 10/22 - Practice & challenges for playoffs, Top 8 & captains 4:00-600
Fri 10/23 - Practice for playoffs, Top 8 plus captains 4:00-5:30

Mon 10/24 - Practice & doubles challenge for playoffs 4:00-6:00
Tue 10/25 - Playoffs First Round @ Lancaster or Blythewood
Wed 10/26 - Practice (if we advance)
Thu 10/27 - Playoffs Second Round @ TBD (Region I or Region II)

However, this is what I PREDICT:

Mon 10/19 - Home v Boiling Springs (Senior Night)
Tue 10/20 - Practice & Challenges - Last mandatory practice for reserves
Wed 10/21 - at York/Cookout after
Thu 10/22 - Practice & challenges for playoffs, Top 8 plus captains 4:00-6:00
Fri 10/23 - Practice for playoffs, Top 8 plus captains 4:00-5:30

Mon 10/26 - Practice & doubles challenges for playoffs 4:00-6:00
Tue 10/25 - Playoffs First Round @ Lancaster or Blythewood
Wed 10/26 - Practice (if we advance)
Thu 10/27 - Playoffs Second Round @ TBD (Region I or Region II)

This, of course, is pending the weather...which has not been too friendly to us lately.

Go Trojans!

Clover hands Trojan Region Loss

2009-10-13T20:55:00.004-04:00

Clover came over on a beautiful Carolina day to battle us for the second time in a region match this season. Unfortunately, Clover played really well across the board and took all the matches tonight. The loss puts us at 5-7 overall and 3-6 in the region. Our final region match will be Thursday at York.

We had some wins in reserve matches tonight. Olivia Huckabee claimed an 8-2 victory as did the doubles tandem of Caroline Herron & Karlee Fox by score of 8-6.

Depending on when the rains come and go tonight, we have South Pointe on the schedule for tomorrow. It is planned to be Senior Night so we will be having a celebration afterward to thank our seniors: Hillary Tindall, MC Faulkner, and Olivia Huckabee.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern

Result: Clover 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Kate Stewart (C) def Chandler Green 6-3, 6-4

2s: Molly Miszkiewicz (C) def Maggie Orr 6-1, 6-2

3s: Liz Cash (C) def Betsy Creech 6-3, 6-2

4s: Faith Daniel (C) def Courtney Cox 6-4, 6-2

5s: Anna Miszkiewicz (C) def Lauren Cox 6-0, 6-1

1d: Stewart/Cash (C) def Green/Orr 8-5

2d: Patterson Joyner/Elizabeth Edmunds (C) def Emily Edwards/Hillary Tindall 6-2, 6-2

Boiling Springs match Rescheduled

2009-10-13T14:22:00.002-04:00

Boiling Springs was able to shuffle around some things & make room for us in their schedule. Hopefully, we will avoid rain in the next few nights & get to play this match on top of our final region matches and rivalry matches with Rock Hill & South Pointe.

The schedule to the left is accurate at this time. Boiling Springs will travel to us Monday 10/19 and match start time will be 5:00pm.

Trojans Defeated at Nation Ford

2009-10-08T21:02:00.007-04:00

The Lady Trojans suffered a tough region loss to Nation Ford tonight by score of 2 matches to 4. We now stand at 5-6 overall, but are 3-5 in region matches. The loss to Nation Ford makes it nearly impossible for us to finish higher than 4th in our region, but we still have a mathematical chance if we are able to get a win over Clover & York next week. We'd need the minor miracle of Fort Mill losing the rest of their region matches, but hey - we're not out yet.

Sometimes, it's tough to find great positives from a loss, but it was really good to see Chandler Green & Maggie Orr get straight set wins at 1 & 2. Maggie dominated her match at 2 & was up 6-1, 5-0 before a late charge by Bowers. For Chandler, this was probably the biggest win of her young career as she knocked off last year's region player of the year for us. In the end, Nation Ford has more depth and has dominated lines 4, 5 , & 2 doubles all season long. That is what seperates them from us, Fort Mill, Gaffney and York right now.

We were able to claim 3 wins in reserve matches as doubles teams of Alexis Peddy & Olivia Huckabee, as well as Caroline Herron & Randi Honeycutt claimed 8-2, and 8-6 wins respectively. Natalie Hageman was also successful by an 8-2 margin.

I mentioned to the girls on the bus that I have tried to contact Boiling Springs coach about possibly pushing Monday's match back by a week to Monday 10/19. I really would like to have a practice and another round of challenges before 4 straight matches, but we'll see what they can do to try to accomodate us. If we are able to push the match back, I will text the captains & post something here.

I really look forward to playing Boiling Springs. I think they will be very evenly matched with us. Gaffney's coach showed me the scores from when they had played them & Gaffney lost by about the same scores to Boiling Springs and us. She felt it would be a great matchup.

I'll keep ya posted...Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Nation Ford HS

Result: Nation Ford 4, Northwestern 2

1s: Chandler Green (NW) def Ashley Trull 6-4, 7-5

2s: Maggie Orr (NW) def Jordan Bowers 6-1, 6-4

3s: Olivia Whitener (NF) def Betsy Creech 6-3, 6-1

4s: Sarah Tourville (NF) def Courtney Cox 6-4, 6-1

5s: Morgan Jasper (NF) def Lauren Cox 6-1, 6-1

2d: Melanie Mullen/Rylie Smith (NF) def Hillary Tindall/Emily Edwards 6-0, 6-1

3AAAA Records: Nation Ford 7-1, Northwestern 3-5

Trojans Down Gaffney

2009-10-06T21:22:00.011-04:00

The venture over to Gaffney was a success as we defended 4th place in Region 3AAAA. The overall team win by score of 6-1 puts the Trojans back at .500 with a 5-5 overall record and a 3-4 mark in region matches. A win over Nation Ford on Thursday is crucial in that we can outright claim 4th place with the win and a spot in the state playoffs. Also, a win over Nation Ford, Clover, and York are all necessary in order for us to move up to 3rd over Fort Mill.

Lauren Cox was huge tonight for us at 5 singles as she nearly blanked Little of Gaffney. She allowed 1 game in the first set before shutting her out in the second.

Maggie Orr gave us our second convincing win at 2 singles. She rolled early to a 4-1 lead in the first set before Hopping of Gaffney claimed 2 games. Maggie closed out the match with an 8 game tear for a 6-3, 6-0 win.

Our doubles team of Hillary Tindall & Emily Edwards was the third point of the night for the Trojans. They asserted themselves early and handled the first set 6-2. The second set was all Trojans as the 6-0 second set pushed the team lead to 3 to 0 in our favor.

Things became a little interesting at this point as we had first set wins by Chandler Green & Betsy Creech at 1 & 3 singles respectively and were down a set at 4 singles with Courtney Cox. We needed one win out of these three matches to decide the match.

Chandler was the decider for us tonight. Her first set had played even, with Chandler leading the majority of the way against Lecroy of Gaffney to a 6-4 result in our favor. She took off in the second and claimed game, set, and match for herself and her team with a 6-1 second set.

Courtney had dropped her first set in a set tiebreaker and was rolling in the second set. She finished the second set 6-2 in her advantage and the match was to be decided in a 10 point match tiebreak. Courtney fell behind early and faced match point after the second changeover at 3-9. She was able to fight off two match points before the point was decided in Little's favor for Gaffney's team point.

Betsy Creech had played a tough, close first set in a match that featured some great hitting between herself and Gallman of Gaffney. The first set was Betsy's in a tiebreaker and the second set played nearly as close. Betsy toughed out the second 6-4 for our 5th point of the night.

With the match decided, I decided not to play the normal 1 doubles point and instead counted the reserve match of Erin Brooks & MC Faulkner as an official varsity match. The two have worked really hard lately and are playing really well and they deserve credit for their 8-6 victory tonight.

Practice tomorrow will be from 5pm-7pm with some top half challenges after the Beta Club induction ceremony. We need to focus hard on Nation Ford as we continue toward the finish line of the 2009 season.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Gaffney HS

Result: Northwestern 6, Gaffney 1

1s: Chandler Green (N) def Robin LeCroy 6-4, 6-1
2s: Maggie Orr (N) def Aubrey Hopping 6-3, 6-0
3s: Betsy Creech (N) def Jessi Cook 7-6(5) 6-4
4s: Mel Gallmon (G) def Courtney Cox 7-6(3), 2-6, 10-5
5s: Lauren Cox (N) def Alli Little 6-1, 6-0

1d: Emily Edwards/Hillary Tindall (N) def Jaclyn Bruton/Leighlan Fowler 6-2, 6-0
2d: MC Faulkner/Erin Brooks (N) def Brittany Gibson/Mikaela James 8-6

Records: Northwestern 5-5, 3-4 Region 3AAAA Gaffney 1-7, 1-6, Region 3AAAA

South Pointe Match Reschedule

2009-10-06T12:13:00.003-04:00

The date for South Pointe has had to be rescheduled again due to rainouts on South Pointe's end and their need to get their region matches finished in preference of non-region matches.

The schedule to the left is updated & the match is now set for 5:00 on Wednesday October 14 @ Northwestern.

It will still be Senior night for us and is still our last home match of the year.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but I am cooperating with South Pointe as they would with me in the same situation.

Trojans drop close one to Fort Mill

2009-10-01T21:04:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-30T18:55:00.005-04:00

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

2009-09-29T20:31:00.010-04:00

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

Clover Hands Trojans Region Loss

2009-09-23T21:53:00.005-04:00

The venture over to Clover was not quite as successful as we were hoping tonight. The girls battled hard, but were unable to overcome the Eagles tonight. Our record now stands at 3-4 overall and we are 1-3 in our region. Our next match next Tuesday, against York, will complete the first round of region matches.

Chandler Green secured our line win at #2 singles tonight. Playing against Miszkiewicz of Clover was more of a mental showdown than anything, and Chandler held strong. I was proud of how Chandler handled herself in some awfully uncomfortable situations to be the better player tonight.

We weren't shut out of any matches tonight. We had some matches get interesting, but overall we struggled to out hit Clover. This was a tough week for us as we played Nation Ford & Clover, both of whom are undefeated after the first 4 region matches.

Our reserves claimed a couple matches tonight against a relatively deep Clover roster. Caroline Herron & Randi Honeycutt claimed an 8-3 victory while Hannah Cramer won a singles match by a score of 8-3.

We'll get back after it tomorrow to prepare for York and then the second half of our region slate.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Clover

Result: Clover 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Kate Stewart (C) def Maggie Orr (N) 6-2, 6-1

2s: Chandler Green (N) def Molly Miszkiewicz (C) 6-3, 6-2

3s: Liz Cash (C) def Betsy Creech (N) 7-5, 6-0

4s: Faith Daniel (C) def Emily Edwards (N) 6-1, 6-0

5s: Anna Miszkiewicz (C) def Courtney Cox (N) 6-2, 6-3

1d: DNP

2d: Patterson Joyner/Elizabeth Edmunds (C) def Lauren Cox/Hillary Tindall (N) 6-3, 6-2

Records: Clover 7-1, 4-0 Region, Northwestern 3-4, 1-3 Region

Trojans Drop Close Match to Nation Ford

2009-09-22T21:08:00.007-04:00

Nation Ford came down I-77 to take us on tonight. We battled hard, but fell 1-5 in the match up. The loss drops us to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in our region. We travel to Clover tomorrow night and host York next Tuesday to conclude the first round of our region matches.

Maggie Orr played her tail off at #1 singles against last year's region player of the year, Trull of Nation Ford. I truly thought she was on the verge of forcing a tiebreaker for the match, but Trull was able to hold serve to close out the match 6-4, 6-4.

Chandler Green was able to take the #2 singles from Bowers. The first set outlasted some of the other entire matches as the girls went to a first set tiebreaker. The second set went much quicker as Chandler took care of business for a 6-1 clinching set.

Betsy Creech faced a streaky, hard-hitting #3 singles play from Nation Ford in Whitener. Betsy was able to succeed playing defensively against the power coming at her, but was unable to string enough games together in the end.

Emily Edwards faced a tough and consistent hitter in Tourville at #4. The match ended up more lopsided than it probably should have been as the speed of Tourville took away from Emily's wisely placed hitting. I believe Emily will be eager to get another shot at this one next time around.

Courtney Cox struggled with consistency tonight against M. Jasper at #5 singles. The match was a streaky one as the lead swayed from our favor to theirs in the end.

Probably the most exciting match of the night came from the doubles match up. Nation Ford's duo of C. Jasper and Smith were probably the better individual players on the courts tonight. However, Lauren Cox and Hillary Tindall traded blow for blow with the two of them and took the first set in a tiebreaker before dropping the second set with teamwork and strategy. The girls looked ready to turn the match back in their favor, but had some points go against them early and fell behind. They tried to charge back, but came up a little short in the end.

Reserve doubles matches were claimed by two teams tonight. Randi Honeycutt & Karlee Fox won 8-4 while Emily Cramer & Natalie Hageman won 8-1.

Courtney's BBQ after the match tomorrow at Clover.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern
Result: Nation Ford 5, Northwestern 1

1s: Ashley Trull (NF) def Maggie Orr (NW) 6-4, 6-4
2s: Chandler Green (NW) def Jordan Bowers (NF) 7-6, 6-1
3s: Olivia Whitener (NF) def Betsy Creech (NW) 6-2, 6-3
4s: Sarah Tourville (NF) def Emily Edwards (NW) 6-0, 6-1
5s: Morgan Jasper (NF) def Courtney Cox (NW) 6-3, 6-3

1d: DNP
2d: Chelsea Jasper/Rylie Smith (NF) def Lauren Cox/Hillary Tindall (NW) 6-7, 6-3, 10-4

Trojans Get Back in Win Column with Narrow defeat of Gaffney

2009-09-17T22:30:00.004-04:00

Well, I for one can say that I wasn't ready for what Gaffney brought to us tonight. Last year, they were a team that we handled easily at almost every line. Tonight was a testament to how much they have worked and improved. I think it would be appropriate to say we escaped with a win tonight. We claimed 5 wins and dropped two lines by the narrowest of margins. The win improves our overall record to 3-2 while we rise to 1-1 in the region.

The player of the night honors go to Courtney Cox. She steamrolled her opponent at #5 singles 6-0, 6-0. Once the match was decided, Gaffney's coach asked me if we wanted to play a #1 doubles proset. I immediately said yes, even though Maggie Orr was still on the courts starting a tiebreaker. Courtney has plenty of doubles experience from last year to handle it and she was playing at the top of her game tonight. Why not give her the nod to team up with Chandler Green for the doubles spot? It turned out to be a good call by me as the duo claimed an 8-2 victory. For those of you keeping track, she won 20 games and dropped only 2 on the night.

Our #2 doubles team played excellent tonight. Brilliant communication and teamwork on the service game as well as strong all around groundstroke and net play allowed Hillary Tindall and Lauren Cox to win a decisive match by score of 6-1, 6-0.

Chandler played an opponent at #2 tonight that she had played in a close match last year at Gaffney at the #1 spot. Chandler never let it get close tonight as she played a very aggressive baseline game and covered the net appropriately and intelligently to claim a 6-3, 6-1 victory.

With 3 lines claimed by the Trojans, things got a little interesting. Maggie, at #1 singles, and Emily Edwards, at #4 singles, had dropped close first sets and were both entering tiebreakers after coming back to win their second sets. Betsy Creech had won her first set and was about to enter a tiebreaker to decide the second set.

Emily Edwards ended up claiming the victory for us tonight. She battled to overcome some early mistakes to gain confidence in herself to make her shots instead of just reacting to her opponents’ shots. The match had truly shifted into her favor midway through the second set and Emily used her momentum to claim the tiebreaker 10-2.

I am sure that both Betsy and Maggie would like to have a redo in their matches tonight. I accept blame in both results as I am not sure I coached either girl effectively to lead her to success. I promise you both that I will do better next week.

Our reserves posted a shutout as many girls got multiple opponents as we finally faced a team that could match us in numbers. I was happy to see everyone on the courts playing hard for Northwestern and most of all, having fun.

Next week we take on two more quality region opponents as we host Nation Ford (16 players) on Tuesday and travel to Clover (14 players) on Wednesday. See you all at practice on Monday!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 5, Gaffney 2

1s: Robin Lecroy (G) def Maggie Orr (N) 7-5, 2-6, 12-10
2s: Chandler Green (N) def Aubrey Hopping (G) 6-1, 6-3
3s: Jessi Cook (G) def Betsy Creech (N) 5-7, 7-6(3) 11-9
4s: Emily Edwards (N) def Mel Gallman (G) 3-6, 7-5, 10-2
5s: Courtney Cox (N) def Jaclyn Bruton (G) 6-0, 6-0

1d: Green/C Cox (N) def Hopping/Gallman (G) 8-2
2d: Lauren Cox/Hillary Tindall (N) def Alli Little/Leighton Fowler (G) 6-1, 6-0

Trojans drop first Region matchup of 2009 to Fort Mill

2009-09-15T20:52:00.006-04:00

Our first region match did not fall in our favor tonight. The defeat puts us at 2-2 overall and 0-1 in region 3-AAAA.

Maggie Orr played her heart out tonight and proved to me that she can compete with any top player in our region. Chumney from Fort Mill is in a class of her own at this level and Maggie made her earn every single point. Easily, Maggie could have folded and let Chumney walk all over her. She never did and I was proud of her effort.

Chandler Green went up the first set and had Katz frustrated early. The second set ended up slipping away and the match went to a tiebreaker to decide it. I tried to pump up Chandler to become more aggressive and play her shots. Unfortunately, some early hitting errors in the tiebreak put her in a hole that was too big to overcome.

Betsy Creech bounced back from her defeat at Byrnes to put a W on the board for us tonight in the 3 singles line. She went out to early leads in both sets against Jensen from Fort Mill and never let up. Her score reflects how hard she worked to put the match away for her team.

Courtney Cox struggled to find a consistent rhythm against Williams from Fort Mill at 4 singles. The first set could have gone our way, but was dropped in a set tiebreak. Strategy wise, Courtney tried to turn the match in the second by playing more aggressive to Williams backhand. It worked at times, but not enough as the match was dropped 6-4 in the second set.

Senior captain MC Faulkner debuted in the starting lineup tonight at 5 singles. She played her heart out and truly seemed to be the better baseline hitter against Hoisington of Fort Mill. Hoisington just kept ball after ball in play and forced MC out of her comfort zone to claim Fort Mills line 5 win.

Our doubles girls didn't look like the same pair that had played the last three matches for us in the first set and a half. Still, senior captain Hillary Tindall and Lauren Cox were able to gut out the second set and force the match to a tiebreaker. They also fell behind early in the tiebreak and were unable to string together enough points to come back for us tonight. I like the effort that was made to comeback, however we needed it earlier in the match to set the tone in our favor.

I was pleased overall with how hard the girls played tonight. I can't say that I was totally impressed with the way we thought our way through some situations. We continue to keep playing balls down the middle to our opponents and we don't make them work as hard as we are working. There are many opportunities for us to play smarter points out there.

Our reserve doubles action showed favorable for the Trojans tonight. Wins were secured by the teams of Alexis Peddy / Randi Honey cutt as well as Karlee Fox / Caroline Herron by scores of 8-5 and 8-2 respectively. I am happy with the depth of our team and believe that the middle and bottom of our roster is as good as any in the upperstate this year.

Gaffney is headed over for a region matchup Thursday. We need to focus hard in practice tomorrow to get the team moving back in the right direction.

Go Trojans!

Location: Fort Mill HS
Result: Fort Mill 6, Northwestern 1

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

1d: Chumney/Katz (F) def Orr/Green (N) 8-2
2d: Persephone McCullough/Dori Wilson (F) def Lauren Cox/Hillary Tindall (N) 6-2, 4-6, 10-5

Schedule Change - Clover match

2009-09-15T10:58:00.002-04:00

Clover requested a rescheduling of our match that was set for Thursday 9/24. The new match day will be:

Wednesday, September 23, 5:00 PM

I have updated the schedule to the side, but please make note of it on your home schedules. Thursday 9/24 will now be a regular practice from 4pm-6pm.

Go Trojans!

Makes me proud to be associated with this young man

2009-09-14T10:46:00.001-04:00

http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=74276

Trojans Drop Close Decision to Byrnes

2009-09-08T21:50:00.003-04:00

We ventured down to Spartanburg to test ourselves against a formidable opponent tonight from Region 2AAAA. Byrnes High School is a senior laden team that showed guts tonight and played well enough to claim a close decision from us. The 2-4 defeat puts us at 2-1 overall as we head into our region schedule next week.

Emily Edwards struggled to find her stroke tonight and was first to clear the courts tonight. Her opponent was a scrappy athlete that was a senior and played Emily tough from beginning to end.

Maggie Orr played number 1 for the Trojans tonight and I was really proud of her total effort tonight. Her opponent was a senior that has played #1 at Byrnes for 6 years. The match was much closer than the score reflects as Maggie dominated some points, but came up short on closing out games.

The third match to finish was a win courtesy of our #2 doubles team of Hillary Tindall and Lauren Cox. These two proved they are dependable for us deep into our roster. The first set had them trailing early, but they staged a huge comeback due to excellent teamwork and communication as the girls claimed the first set 6-4. They stayed hot in the second and grabbed our first line win with a 6-2 second set.

Courtney Cox was the fourth match to finish. Byrnes #4 player was not necessarily a dominant force, but she kept balls in play that put Courtney in tough spots to try to set up her shots. She fell behind 1-4 in the first set before making a charge to go up 5-4. Byrnes took 3 of the last 4 games for the first set. Courtney continued to play hard, but struggled to outlast her opponent and Byrnes claimed their third line of the night.

Betsy Creech had a match that had a difficult flow to it due to her senior opponent taking a spill early in the first set which required some medical attention to a scraped up knee. Betsy took advantage of the injury for a while and closed the 1-4 deficit before falling in the first set 4-6 and the third 3-6.

Our last remaining varsity line on the courts was Chandler Green at 2 singles. Chandler battled through a tough first set to come out on top 7-5. She controlled the play of the second set and went out to a 5-2 lead. I crossed my fingers and pulled for her to close it out quickly. Unfortunately, Byrnes senior #2 player went on a brief run and closed the gap to 5-4. Chandler didn't let it bother her. She closed out the next game quickly to claim our second team line win of the match.

We'll be back at practice tomorrow to prepare for our region schedule which starts next week. We travel to Fort Mill next Tuesday and will host Gaffney on Thursday. All matches are important, but region matches determine seeding in the post season and every individual effort will determine our team's success level.

Go Trojans!

Location: Byrnes HS, Duncan SC

Result: Byrnes 4, Northwestern 2

1s: Karmen Redding (B) def Maggie Orr (N) 6-1, 6-0

2s: Chandler Green (N) def Celena Sneddy (B) 7-5, 6-4

3s: Saige Allison (B) def Betsy Creech (N) 6-4, 6-3

4s: Mazie Jasper (B) def Emily Edwards (N) 6-0, 6-0

5s: Jessica Wang (B) def Courtney Cox (N) 7-5, 6-2

1d: DNP

2d: Hillary Tindall/Lauren Cox (N) def Lix Ng/Jaquie Montoya (B) 6-4, 6-2

Record: Northwestern 2-1, Byrnes 2-1

Trojans defeat Bearcats

2009-09-03T20:37:00.003-04:00

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

2009-09-02T20:16:00.004-04:00

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

Excellent effort in scrimmage tonight

2009-08-19T21:09:00.002-04:00

The trip over to Lancaster was exactly what I was hoping for. We had a chance to travel together to a match, play competitively against another opponent, and shake off the nerves of playing against another school.

I am extremely proud of all the girls tonight. I thought that our doubles play was good and could be great as the season rolls on. I will continue to pair up our strongest doubles teams in matches as I think those lines will be crucial for us this year.

As for our singles lines that lost, I think all the girls understand why and how they can improve. I am really excited to get back to practice next week to iron out the kinks.

Remember, this scrimmage as well as Myers Park next week were scheduled not for the expectation of wins. They are to put us against top competition that will show us where we are and where we need to go. If you were successful tonight, enjoy it & congratulations. If you came up short, learn from it and have a quick memory to forget the defeat.

Go Trojans!

Trojan Individuals in USTA's Latest State Rankings

2009-08-19T11:08:00.002-04:00

Several boys and girls have competed all year long in USTA sanctioned events and have earned ranking points this year. Ranking results are based on the best 12 tournament results from the current 12 months. Points are earned toward this year, but at the same time points are dropped as time goes on so that you are ranked by your current 12 month results

Here are our current players ranked in the state of South Carolina as of August 18, 2009:

Boys 16 & under
#83 - Seth Russell
#95 - Hunter Love
#145 - Brian Fitzpatrick

Boys 14 & under
#85 - Alex Antezana
#120 - Jonathan Clark
#140 - Christopher Cassidy

Girls 16 & under
#185 - Chandler Green
#189 - Maggie Orr

Girls 14 & under
#143 - Karlee Fox

Keep it up everyone. And remember, you can't get ranked if you don't compete!

If you are interested in year round tournaments, I'd be happy to go through the list and pick ones out that would be suited to your age and skill level. Playing tournaments exposes players to a variety of opponents and teaches the mental aspects of the game that might be lost during the off season.

Scrimmage at Lancaster Wednesday 8/19 & the next few days

2009-08-17T12:50:00.004-04:00

We decided to wear white tops with purple skirts for this week's scrimmage. Our uniform tops may be in tomorrow, but have your white practice top clean just in case.

For those new to high school tennis, Lancaster High does not have courts at the school. They play at USC Lancaster's facility. They are not the easiest courts to find, but the simplest directions are:

Follow Hwy 9 toward Lancaster and veer south onto Hwy 521. Turn right at the Chevy dealership (Hubbard Dr). After you go through one light but before you get to the main campus, the Gregory Health & Wellness Center is on your left. The courts are tucked behind the facility.

With a GPS, type in: 476 Hubbard Dr. Lancaster SC 29720
- just be on the lookout for the Gregory Health and Wellness Center once you are on Hubbard

Lancaster will have 9 or 10 players available so I will try to get matches for the varsity 7 plus 3 or 4. I will have stuff for everyone else to do during the matches to help out the team. Once the varsity courts clear I'll pair up the remaining girls either against a Lancaster opponent or one of our own players as time permits.

USC Lancaster is one of the nicer facilities to photograph our players in action since the fences at the center are low and unobstructed for #1, #3, #5 singles and #1 doubles. I'm going to bring my camera to get some shots of the girls & I would encourage you to bring yours as well.

We will bus to and from the scrimmage. If a girl wants to ride home with her parents, just let me know so I don't think we lost someone after the match.

We will be off from practice Thursday & Friday since I have to start back at school as well. The girls will be off until Monday's practice. Following our brief practice on Monday will be "Meet the Trojans" night at 7:00 PM in the school's F-Gym. All fall sport athletes will be introduced and we will do a team picture before as well. I'll have the captains decide what we want to wear as a team for the picture and assembly. Dinner is being provided by Papooli's pizza at 6PM so no one should go hungry.

Go Trojans!

2009 Girls Captains

2009-08-12T21:10:00.003-04:00

The team has voted in our two captains for this fall. Congratulations to Hillary Tindall & MC Faulkner!

Hillary is a returning letter winner from last year's team. She was a consistent contributor to the team last year in matches and in practice. She was given the 2008 Girls Coach's Award for her excellent attitude and work ethic.

MC is in her first year as a tennis player at Northwestern. She also competes on the Lady Trojan basketball team. Although just in her first year of tennis, she has the potential to make a strong impact in matches and in practice every day.

Congratulations to both of you. I look forward to seeing you demonstrate superior leadership to the sixteen other hard working ladies this year.

Go Trojans!

Scrimmage v. Indian Land Cancelled

2009-08-12T16:37:00.003-04:00

As most of you probably have figured out, the rain is not going to stop in time for our courts to be playable.

Indian Land also will not be able to come to us tomorrow evening as they will not have enough players to field a team. We may reschedule for a future date, but at this point it is cancelled.

We'll meet in the mini gym tonight at 6 pm - 8 pm for indoor workouts. I will announce captains, hand out snack schedule (I forgot in the dash from the rain this morning), and Mrs. Cox will have some uniform pieces that the girls can try on to confirm sizes.

Once captains are announced, my day to day communications will all filter through them. I will text information on rainouts to the captains, they will in turn forward it to the team, and the team members can notify parents. Information will still be posted here, but I feel that texting can get the information out faster and they will know information immediately after school.

Also, a note to snack assignments:
- If your date doesn't work, please try to reschedule amongst yourselves. I don't really care who has which day as long as all dates are covered
- Try not to purchase perishables in advance. Pick them up on the way to the match so that nothing goes bad if a match gets rained out.

Go Trojans!

Team Selection - Girls 2009

2009-08-07T12:30:00.003-04:00

Congratulations to the girls that were selected to represent NHS this fall as a part of the 2009 Girls Tennis Season. I met with the girls this morning to inform them of their team rank and expectations for this season and the future.

If the player is accepting my offer to be a part of the NHS Girls Tennis team this fall, I asked them to read, initial and sign with their parent agreeing to the rules for the team. They also were handed out an order sheet for uniforms, skirts, and extra clothing options to wear as representatives of our team.

Thank you to Mrs. Cox & Mrs. Orr for organizing the team clothing orders this fall. Hopefully they can answer any questions you might have.

Congratulations to all the girls that were selected to the team this year. I look forward to getting to work next week to make this team as good as it can be!

Go Trojans!

Girls Tryouts

2009-07-21T15:10:00.003-04:00

In two weeks we will begin having tryouts to determine the 2009 Girls Tennis team at Northwestern High School. I am excited to get to work on making this team as good as it can be.

To remind everyone, tryouts will be held:

Mon 8/3 9am - noon
Tue 8/4 9am - noon
Wed 8/5 9am - noon
Thu 8/6 9am - noon
Fri 8/7 9am - noon (team selection by 12 noon)

I do expect that all players are familiar with tennis rules and scoring. I will briefly cover it on days 1 & 2 to refresh everyone on things such as no-ad scoring and tiebreakers. Hopefully this will be just a refresher and not a new learning session.

I have sent out several notices this summer about shoes, physicals, birth certificates, etc. Attached to the emailed tryout message was a list of things that are required and/or suggested for players to have with them to tryouts. Please be familiar with it.

As for shoes, I ordered them last week and they should arrive by the end of next week for the 5 girls that paid for shoes (Cramer, Cramer, Tindall, Barber, Sosebee). In the event that something goes wrong with the order; bad size or fit or an order delay (which I do not anticipate), I encourage players that ordered shoes to wear something athletic the first morning of try outs. In a nutshell, plan for the worst but expect no issues.

If you still have not gotten a physical, it is not something I will look the other way on. If your family doctor cannot see you before 8/3, please go to Riverview on Celenese Road. They are open 24 hours 7 days per week and are very familiar with the physical needs of student athletes and their pricing is reasonable. Here once again, is the form to have the doctor fill out:

http://northwesterntrojans.org/library/files/NorthwesternTrojans_org/files/ppe_form.pdf

At try outs, plan on it being hot - even at 9 am. If you are not physically ready to play 3 hours of tennis every day in the heat it will affect your chances of making the team. However, the worst thing that I can imagine is for a girl to be seriously harmed from the heat. I am CPR trained and the school does have a trainer at school. That doesn't mean that I want to gain real time experience using my CPR training. Be physically fit and ready for try outs.

For the girls that do end up making the team at NHS, I will be handing out an equipment order form on Fri August 7th. I will be asking that at a minimum all girls order three practice tee-shirts ($10 ea, $30 total per player). I will list out additional items as well that may be purchased such as long sleeve tees, sweats, etc. Parents are also encouraged to purchase items to support our girls this season!

Also, I had mentioned at the parents meeting that I would try to purchase skirts for the girls from our budget. However, with the high cost that is going to happen replacing the windscreens this is just not going to be possible. Team members will be expected to own at least one (1) white tennis skirt and one (1) black tennis skirt no later than Wednesday August 12. These should preferably have no stripes or trim so that we all look relatively the same. Here are some options:

http://www.tennisexpress.com/category.cfm/tennis/Skirts-womens-tennis-apparel/displaycount/300

http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/searchapparel.html?search=args&type=WOM&xcat=waskirts&scode_size=&scode_color=BK&x=9&y=14

http://www.midwestsports.com/womens-tennis-skirts-skorts/c/605/

Let me know if you have any questions. I'll be out of town next week at the high school coach's convention and on vacation, but if you email or call me I'll return your message as soon as possible.

Summer Tournament Schedule (Levels 4 & 5)

2009-06-11T12:57:00.006-04:00

Here are the tournaments that are available to juniors within a 2 hour drive of us in South Carolina this summer:

Level 4:

1) Blythewood (June 19-21) 1 1/4 hour drive: http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=75046

2) Aiken (July 3-5) 2 hour drive:
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=83170

3) Rock Hill (July 17-19):
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=74899

4) Greer (August 7-9) 1 3/4 hour drive: http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=74023

5) Lexington (August 14-16) 1 1/2 hour drive:
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=73852

Level 5:

1) Columbia (July 18) 1 1/4 hour drive:
http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=74510

2) Sumter (July 25) 2 hour drive:
http://tennislink.usta.com/Tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=79863

A tournament is distinguished by a level number. A level 1 features the best competition in the United States. A level 2 features the best competition in the region (southeast for us) or is considered a state championship. A level 3 features state level competition. Level 4 will have competition from surrounding counties and the top 25 players in the state are excluded from entering. Level 5 will have mostly local players and the top 50 players in the state are excluded from entering.

As far as Northwestern's program goes, players that lettered last year are probably going to be OK playing at level 4 (Seth competes mostly at level 3 & 2). All others should try level 5 tournaments before entering up to a level 4. If you are in doubt about your level (lettered by playing only a couple matches), you should probably try a level 5 first. If you find success in winning level 4 matches, search around for a level 3.

I am a firm believer in keeping yourself "match-ready" in the offseason. It has been great to see so many out at the courts this week already and I hope to see more as the summer evolves. Use the mornings to practice and prepare yourself for competition. Enter a tournament if you are ready to compete.

Go Trojans!

Boys Tennis Banquet

2009-05-22T18:04:00.002-04:00

We held our end of season awards banquet on Thursday May 20 to conclude the 2009 boys tennis season. It was great that all the boys were there and so many parents and siblings were able to attend.

I went over summer tennis available in the area. There were three things I highlighted:

1) Interscholastic League - Mrs. Schroeder & Mrs. Cassidy are going to spearhead the USTA's Interscholastic league. If you are interested in signing up, please make sure you are a USTA member and let one of those two ladies know. I would like to have Northwestern be able to field at least two teams this year. That will require 12 boys to participate.

2) Rock Hill Tennis Center Camps & Clinics Summer 2009 - I had brochures available for the boys to take home. Please contact the tennis center with any further questions. You will want to sign up soon to reserve a spot

3) The Northwestern tennis courts will be open this summer June 8 - July 23 Mon-Thu from 9am-12noon. If you simply want to play in the mornings this summer, please make a check payable to the school for $20 and have a new physical completed. I will be working with a small group individually during this time so this is not where you would go for instruction. This would be open for you guys to meet up with each other and have open play amongst yourselves. I will not be pairing people up or keeping track of any wins and losses.

We then recognized our non letter winning participants:

Jacob Schroeder, Caleb Guyton, Christopher Cassidy, Jonathan Patton, Phillip Yommer, Ben Leppard, Jacob Page, Collin Schroeder, Key Barkley, Michael Baldwin, and Matthew Pettitt

Letter winners were then introduced:

Seth Russell (4th letter), Drayton Wade (2nd & captain pin), Hunter Love(1st), Brian Fitzpatrick (2nd), Jordan Beaver (2nd), Jonathan Clark (1st), Duncan Foy (1st), Collins Mauldin (1st), Alex Antezana (1st), Tyler Leonard (1st), Ahmad Sheffield (1st & captain pin), and Tyler Hutson (1st)

The All State Academic Team representatives were then introduced. The following boys hold a GPA of 4.0 and above and were recognized with a certificate from the South Carolina Tennis Coaches Association:

Jordan Beaver, Michael Baldwin, Tyler Leonard, Collins Mauldin, Matthew Pettitt, Drayton Wade, Key Barkley, Brian Fitzpatrick, Benjamin Leppard, Jacob Page, Jonathan Patton, and Alex Antezana

We then handed out awards in four categories:

1) Coach's Award - Awarded to the player who stands out as displaying a strong work ethic, strives to make others around him better, and works hard to become better every day. It was my honor to name Jonathan Clark this year's recipient of the Coach's Award.

2) Best Practice Player - The boys voted on who they felt was the player that worked the hardest in practice day in and day out to make himself better as well as his teammates. The team voted Drayton Wade as the recipient of this year's Best Practice Player award. This is the second straight year that Drayton has won this award.

3) Most Improved Player - The boys voted on who they felt had either (a) improved the most from last year to this year or (b) improved the most from the beginning of the season until the end. The team voted Collins Mauldin this year's Most Improved Player. Collins improved his team standing from #12 all the way up to #8 by season's end and it is no doubt that his teammates recognized this.

4) Most Valuable Player - The boys voted on who they felt was most responsible for the success we experienced this season not purely based on talent, but also by working hard to make the team as good as it can be. The team voted Seth Russell as Most Valuable Player of this year's boys tennis team. Seth played 1 singles from beginning of the season to the end. Seth is currently the 90th ranked player in the state in the 16-under USTA rankings. Seth had an overall record this year of 8-6, 5-5 in region at 1 singles and was selected to the Region 3-AAAA All Region Team.

I had a great time working with the boys this year. I look forward to seeing the boys work hard this summer to improve their individual games so that we can improve as a team overall. I don't think it is an unreasonable goal for us to set as finishing in the top 2 of our region next year and having an opportunity to host an opening round playoff match. The amount of work the team puts in during the off season will determine whether this can be accomplished or not.

Go Trojans!

Girls Tennis Meeting Recap

2009-05-20T19:34:00.008-04:00

We had an awesome turnout tonight for an informational meeting about the fall 2009 girls tennis season. I was happy to see many familiar faces and am eager to get to know the new faces better. Below is a recap of the information that I went over:

1) Contact list for players and parents. I emailed a list out to everyone that was there tonight. This list will evolve over the summer and I will keep my records updated and provide a final draft the second week of practice.

2) Physicals and Eligibility. In order to participate in any sport, all athletes need to have an updated physical on file in the athletic office. If you have not had a physical after May 10, 2009, your physical has expired and a new one is required. Before I allow anyone onto the courts this summer or fall, I will require that the player has a physical on file. Also, a player needs to be academically eligible to participate in sports. Please check with your guidance counselor and/or the athletic office if you have questions about being academically eligible.

3) Summer Tennis. By far, the most crucial part of our team is the amount of work you all do over the summer. Once August 3 rolls around, I will be placing girls into pairings in order to play off against one another for roster spots. August 3rd is not the time to learn how to play, I will expect that players know how to play, keep score, and have a respectable grasp on tennis rules.

I have many friends involved at the Rock Hill Tennis Center and have worked clinics there in the past. I handed out clinic and camp brochures to everyone in attendance. If you have not played tennis before, I highly recommend their camp program. If you have played (notably last year's varsity team), I would recommend their clinic sessions.

Also, I have heard many people complain about the high school's courts not being open to the public. This policy will not change - it's a long story, but trust me that it is not going to change. However, I will be out at the NHS courts Mon-Thu from 9AM-Noon from June 8 - July 23. If you simply need a court to play and have had a physical done, I will ask for a $20 donation to the school to use the courts all summer. I will provide balls for the guys and girls to play with, but this will not be an instruction session or anything structured. Come out if you have a teammate to play with or want to meet someone,. Please do not expect me to pair you up.

There are many facilities in and around metro Charlotte and by no means am I going to require these as your only options. Learn as you wish, just be prepared to start competing full time come August 3rd.

4) Try outs 8/3 - 8/7. Our first five days of the season will be used as competition against one another in both singles and doubles. You should expect to play 5-6 sets of tennis against a variety of opponents. I will use this entire first week as a try out to see who will be on Northwestern's 2009 Girls Tennis team.

I have never cut anyone from Northwestern's program, but I feel that it is to the benefit of the team as well as players that are cut for me to do it. I had a very large boys team this spring and I felt that players at the top of the lineup could have gotten much more if I could focus more on them. At the same time, it's not fair for me to neglect those at the bottom. Some at the bottom may have been better served playing through USTA programs.

My experience tells me that a player can generally improve 3-4 spots at most during a season after our initial try out rounds. SC High School tennis consists of a varsity team of between 4-7 players. I plan on crafting a team that consists of between 14-18 players. I want to give opportunity fairly to any player that may rise up to play at the varsity level.

A general measure to determine our team that I will use is that if a player displays good sportsmanship and rank on the try out roster is:

12th grade - top 10
11th grade - top 12
10th grade - top 14
9th grade - top 16
8th or 7th - top 20

they should earn a spot on the team. This is a rough outline, but I think it gets the point across that younger players may get to make the team at a lower rank than older players.

The girls returning from last year will start at the spot they held last year. The girls will be grouped (group a) 1-4, (b) 5-8, (c) 9-12, etc and play mini sets, tiebreakers, and sets in either singles or doubles formats. The player that wins the most matches will be bumped up to the next group and the bottom player will fall down to the lower group. Head to head results will settle tiebreakers and the second tiebreaker is total games won in the group. Therefore, every game, point, or shot will matter in determining your try out rank.

5) Practice Schedule - before school starts and after school starts. We will be on the courts Mon-Fri the weeks of August 3-7 & August 10-14 from 9:00am-12 noon. This is to avoid the heat of August as best as possible. I will have water jugs out, but I will expect the girls to bring large water bottles to carry to their assigned court of play with them. Once school starts, we will practice from 4:00-6:00 (give or take) based on the schedule I handed out.

**Important - All girls need to have their own racket, water bottle, and tennis court shoes to participate in practice. Absolutely no running shoes should be worn to play tennis. They are dangerous and put the player at risk for an ankle injury. They also scuff up the courts with their marking soles. I also encourage shorts with pockets be worn at practice.

I understand that the tennis players of Northwestern are among the elite at the school. These kids get involved in many activities and asked to help with lots of stuff. That is awesome and is fantastic for building college resumes. However, if you are involved with too many activities that will conflict with the schedule that was handed out, I would ask that you not try out for tennis. I always will play players that are at practice in working hard over those that are not. I prefer to avoid those situations.

6) Scrimmages / Matches - I handed out our tentative match schedule for everyone to "stick to the fridge." We have scrimmages starting August 12 and our regular season runs through October 21. The state playoffs start October 27th and I plan on this team qualifying. Frankly, 4 out of the six teams in our region (Nation Ford, Fort Mill, York, Clover, Gaffney and us) qualify. Teams that finish 1 & 2 host their opening round playoff matches. Number 3 & 4 have to travel - usually far - in the first round. I would hope this team finishes in the top 2 and hosts our first round match and advances deeper into the playoffs this year.

The match schedule is tentative at this point. The school district may be making large cuts to budgets across the board and travel is generally the first thing to go. If so, I will update everyone on any changes to the schedule the moment I know about it.

7) Team Rules / Parent Rules - I have a very simple theory on rules. Players should:

1- Show up to practice on time & work hard while at practice
2- Be respectful and polite to teammates, coaches, and opponents
3- Notify coach in advance of any emergencies
4- Be a positive example in school and in your community

But, I also want to make sure parents are all aware of some requirements I have of them:

1- Please support the whole team, not just your child
2- Do not talk to the players during matches while they are on court (unless injury)
3- Encourage your child to talk to the coach first about any issues they have
4- Respect the coaches decision on playing time as it is given fairly to players that earn it

8) Uniforms. This is my least favorite part of coaching. However, the girls looked great last year on the court during practice and matches. Returning girls from last year can wear the same uniforms we had last year (purple & white). If a returning girl needs a new one, they cost $23 each. I will purchase uniforms for new team members from the school's budget. I may also be able to purchase a purple & white tennis skirt for the team members - we'll have to see what our budget is after the school board finalizes everything.

I will also select some Nike clothing items for practice clothes and warm ups. I anticipate a package that includes a sweatshirt, a long sleeve tee shirt, 2 dry fit tees, and 2 cotton tees. I will get pricing on this shortly, but I anticipate the cost around $95-100 per player. I will also have some parent items available if there is enough interest.

As you can see, I'm fairly brief and to the point (yes, I'm joking). If you have any other questions, please email or call me.

Go Trojans!

Post Season Banquet

2009-05-16T09:01:00.002-04:00

We will hold our post season banquet on Thursday May 21 in the school cafeteria. Let's try to start at 6:00 so the agenda can look like this:

6:00-6:30 - Dinner
6:30-7:30 - Awards

Dinner will be pot luck style and the following is the food assignments:

Seniors: Dessert
Juniors: Entrees (Chicken/Beef/Veggie)
Sophomores: Sides/Salad
Freshman/Middle Schoolers: Drinks/Cups/Ice & Decorations

Please coordinate the items among other parents as best you can. I'll see you all Thursday evening.

Go Trojans!

Seth Russell Named to Region 3-AAAA All-Region Team

2009-05-06T20:31:00.008-04:00

The Region 3-AAAA coaches meeting was tonight to select all region team, coach of the year and set order for nominations to the SC AAAA / AAA State Singles Championships.

Seth Russell was unanimously selected to the All-Region team by the coaches. Seth had an overall record of 8-6 and was 5-5 in region matches playing all year at number 1 singles for the Trojans. Seth also had a 2-5 doubles record.

Seth was also nominated as the fifth seed from the region towards the SC State Singles Tournament. The 16 top seeds from each region are automatically selected to the field and 16 others are selected at large by the SC High School League's Tennis Committee.

2009 3-AAAA All Region Team:

*Chase Altieri - Clover

*Robby Davis - Fort Mill

*Kyle Orsburn - Fort Mill

*Nick Deahl - Clover

*Seth Russell - Northwestern

Madison Ott - Nation Ford

Daniel Proctor - Fort Mill

Tyler Davis - Fort Mill

Will Decker - Clover

Ken Long - Clover

Danny Randar - Nation Ford

Tyler Morris - Nation Ford

*State Singles Nominee

Player of the Year:

Chase Altieri - Clover

Coach of the Year:
Phil Wingard - Clover

Spring Valley Too Good for Trojans Tonight

2009-05-05T21:30:00.002-04:00

We beat the rain and got in our first round match tonight at Spring Valley High School. The 4th ranked Vikings proved to be every bit as strong as their state rank indicated and we were shut out tonight. We end the season with a record of 6-9.

I hope that we took away something from this match. Is Spring Valley good? Yes, they are. Can we be as good as Spring Valley in the future? Yes, we can. Will it be easy to raise our tennis to that level? No, it will not. It will take a lot of court time as well as dedication to conditioning, speed, and strength training. It will take a large sacrifice from each player returning next year to put in the work that it will take.

Our season has now come to an end as the playoffs will continue on without us. I wouldn't be surprised to see Spring Valley playing 2 weekends from now in Lexington for the state championship. I plan on being there for the finals to witness it.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Spring Valley HS
Result: Spring Valley 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Ashkon Babaee def Seth Russell 6-0, 6-0
2s: Brent Lett def Drayton Wade 6-0, 6-0
3s: Kenan Sakarcan def Hunter Love 6-0, 6-1
4s: Hampton Drake def Jonathan Clark 6-0, 6-0
5s: Connor Burke def Jordan Beaver 6-1, 6-0

1d: Joe Cunningham/Trey Finch def Brian Fitzpatrick/Duncan Foy 6-0, 6-2
2d: Nick Nishnic/Sean Dunnigan def Alex Antezana/Collins Mauldin 8-1

State Playoff Brackets Released

2009-05-01T17:10:00.002-04:00

The South Carolina made the official announcement today of the 2009 Boys Tennis pairings in AAAA. The Northwestern Trojans, as expected, will travel to Spring Valley HS in the first round: http://www.schsl.org/2008-Brackets/bte%20aaaa.html

Spring Valley is located at: 120 Sparkleberry Rd, Columbia SC 29229

Should we defeat Spring Valley, we would play Thursday at the winner of Dorman vs. Easley.

I mentioned to the boys at practice that I'd be willing to hit around on Sunday evening at the courts for anyone who is around. The time I mentioned will not be possible for me though due to an unforeseen conflict. Therefore, I'll be out at the courts from 5-6:30 to turn on the ball machine and run through some drills with the varsity team.

Go Trojans!

Tonight is What High School Tennis is All About

2009-04-29T22:17:00.007-04:00

We traveled up I-77 to battle Nation Ford in our final region and regular season match of the spring. It was an unbelievable spectacle to watch all 5 singles lines feature come from behind 3rd set tiebreaks to decide this match. We end the season with a record of 6-8 and a region record of 4-6. Neither record does justice for how far we have come as a team this season.

Jonathan Clark jumped out to an early lead on his opponent and claimed the first set 6-1 at 4 singles tonight. Jonathan hit some bumps in the road and struggled to finish off points in the second set. Nation Ford took set two 6-0 to force a tiebreaker. Jonathan was unable to regain his first set form as he dropped the tiebreak 5-10. Nation Ford lead 1-0 overall at this point.

Duncan Foy played 5 singles for us tonight and started strong with a 6-3 first set. Nation Ford made some key adjustments and forced the tempo of the match in the second to square it up after a second set score of 6-2. Nation Ford continued strong play at 5 and Duncan was unable to make a comeback after falling behind 8-3 and finally dropped a 10-7 decision. Nation Ford lead 2-0 at this point.

Hunter Love played 3 singles tonight and had his opponent baffled all night with his mix up of drop shots and lobs. After dropping the first set 5-7, Hunter stormed back in the second set to claim a 6-4 win in that set. The tiebreak was decided in Hunter's favor 10-5 to bring us back to a 2-1 deficit.

Drayton Wade played 2 singles tonight and stormed out to an early 5-2 lead in the first set. After a few errors Nation Ford pulled closer, but Drayton finished off the first set 6-4. The second set went Nation Ford's way as Drayton battled himself more than his opponent and dropped the set 1-6. The tiebreak was dead even all the way to the end until Nation Ford proved too much in the end and took the tiebreak 10-8 and the match lead widened back to 3-1.

The match laid on Seth Russell's shoulders at this point. If Seth were to collapse after dropping the first set 6-3, the match would have been claimed by Nation Ford with their decisive point. Seth trailed by a margin of 2-5, before mounting a massive comeback and forcing a set tiebreak. A close set tiebreak played out 8-6 in our favor and forced a 5th straight match tiebreak as we stayed alive. Seth continued to manage points and control the pace of the match and eventually claimed the match 10-8 and again narrowed Nation Ford's lead to 3-2.

As if that wasn't enough, it was on to doubles where we hedged ourselves to provide 2 strong lines. We paired up our top player, Seth, with our 6th player, Jordan, to play out doubles. Drayton, our 2, teamed up with Brian, our 4, to battle it out at #1 doubles. Nation Ford had similar pairings and it provided for some great doubles action.

The match was decided at line 2 as Nation Ford proved too much for us and claimed their fourth point. That match was decided 1-6, 2-6 and the #1 doubles line had us trailing 2-6, 1-4 when the match ended. Drayton and Brian may not have been excited to have their match stopped, but in the end it goes down as a no decision at 1 doubles.

Regardless of the loss tonight, I have never been so proud of a Northwestern team. We came ready to play a big match and absolutely played our guts out. Never have I been a part of a match with so much drama and so many comebacks as I saw tonight. This, gentlemen, is what it means to compete. Congratulations to you all!

Go Trojans!

Location: Nation Ford HS
Result: Nation Ford 4, Northwestern 2
1s: Seth Russell (NW) def Madison Ott 3-6, 7-6(6), 10-8
2s: Danny Randar (NF) def Drayton Wade 4-6, 6-1, 10-8
3s: Hunter Love (NW) def Brandon McGlohon 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
4s: Tyler Morris (NF) def Jonathan Clark 1-6, 6-0, 10-5
5s: Michael Little (NF) def Duncan Foy 3-6, 6-2, 10-7

1d: Danny Randar/Alex Mclelland (NF) lead Drayton Wade/Brian Fitzpatrick 6-2, 4-1 (unfinished)
2d: Madison Ott/Paul Hoberek (NF) def Seth Russell/Jordan Beaver 6-1, 6-2

Trojans Drop a Thrilla in Rock Hilla

2009-04-27T21:43:00.003-04:00

Rock Hill high made the cross town trip tonight for an inter city rematch of our match last week. We played very strong tonight at most lines, but dropped the closest match I have been involved in as a high school coach. The defeat drops us to 6-7 overall, but we still are in 4th place in our region.

The first match in the books was line 4 with Brian Fitzpatrick. The winds played havoc on Brian's game against a solid #4 player for Rock Hill. If these two were to square off again I have no doubt the score would be much different. Tonight, it was Rock Hill's night at 4 and Brian dropped the match 0-6, 3-6.

The second match in the book was our 2 doubles line of Duncan Foy and Jordan Beaver. The boys dominated from beginning to end and closed out a 6-1, 6-1 victory to tie the match back up at 1-1.

Seth Russell cleared the courts next at 1 singles. Seth lead early, but was unable to hold off the Rock Hill #1 who came back to win the first set 4-6. Seth lost momentum at that point and lost control of the match, dropping the second set 1-6. Rock Hill now held a 2-1 lead in the match.

Drayton Wade played a much better match tonight against a good #2 player from Rock Hill that had defeated him soundly last week. Drayton played two back and forth sets that each resulted in a 6-4 finish. Unfortunately, neither set was our advantage as Rock Hill now cedged ahead 3-1.

Jonathan Clark at 5 and Hunter Love at 3 remained on the court at this point. Both players had dropped their first sets 5-7 and 4-6 respectively. However, both players staged strong comebacks in the second set to force match tiebreaks.

Jonathan lead his tiebreak from beginning to end and claimed a win at 5 singles by score of 5-7, 6-3, 10-7. This edged us back into the match as we trailed 2-3 to the Bearcats at this point.

Hunter played perhaps the longest match in Northwestern tennis history. Two totally contrasting styles, Hunter the chip & placer vs. Rock Hill's net rusher was an odd match from the get go. The players played even and had multiple lead changes through 4 changeovers. Hunter had 2 match points and fought off 3 match points before finally the match was decided by a Rock Hill volley won the line 18-16.

We'll practice tomorrow to prepare for Nation Ford Wednesday. A win could force a statistical tiebreak that is dead even at this point from what I know. We are in the playoffs as the number 4 seed now, but a win gives us a chance at the 3 seed. Regardless, our first round playoff match will be Tuesday May 5 at either Spring Valley HS or Blythewood HS, both in Columbia.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern HS
Result: Rock Hill 5, Northwestern 2

1s: Alik MacLauchlin (R) def Seth Russell 6-4, 6-2
2s: Austin Lee (R) def Drayton Wade 6-4, 6-4
3s: Kevin Gaulden (R) def Hunter Love 6-4, 4-6, 18-16
4s: Alex Silverman (R) def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-0, 6-3
5s: Jonathan Clark (N) def Nick Cauthen 5-7, 6-3, 10-7

1d: MacLauchlin/Lee (R) def Russell/Wade 8-5
2d: Jordan Beaver/Duncan Foy (N) def Corey Wessinger/Michael Adams 6-1, 6-1

One Week Remaining in Regular Season, Current Ladder Rankings

2009-04-24T15:17:00.002-04:00

Here is how our ladder sits with one week left before playoffs:

1) Seth
2) Drayton
3) Hunter
4) Brian
5) Jonathan C
6) Jordan
7) Duncan
8) Alex
9) Collins M
10) Tyler L
11) Jonathan P
12) Michael
13) Key
14) Christopher
15) Collin S
16) Matt
17) Ahmad
18) Ben
19) Tyler H
20) Jacob P
21) Phillip
22) Caleb
23) Jacob S

Trojans clinch spot in Playoffs with Season Sweep of Gaffney

2009-04-23T20:37:00.007-04:00

A beautiful day for tennis blessed the Northwestern courts today as we played region opponent Gaffney to clinch a spot in the SC 4A playoffs. With the 7-0 sweep of Gaffney, we climb back to .500 with a 6-6 record and are 4-5 in region.

We had a little extra motivation as it was senior night and we paid tribute to Ahmad Sheffield and Tyler Hutson before and after the match as well as Coach Sally Bartelmo. I cannot say enough about these fine representatives of our school. Thank you each for all your hard work this year and for setting a great example for the younger players on our team.

Ahmad and Tyler paired up to play 2 doubles tonight. I hadn't even made my first round by the time these two had already claimed the first set 6-1. They rolled through the second set as well and posted a shutout in the second. Great job tonight seniors!

Hunter Love played a near flawless match tonight and scored a double bagel victory at line 3. Not only was Hunter his normal consistent-self, but he also placed his serve very well and methodically picked apart at his opponent's weaknesses. It was a fine performance.

Seth Russell claimed our third win of the night at 1 singles. His Gaffney opponent has improved since their last meeting and put up a better performance than anticipated. However in the end, Seth was just too much as he claimed the line 6-2, 6-1.

Jonathan Clark clinched the win for us at 5 singles. His Gaffney opponent was a tough, consistent player that hung tough. Jonathan was too good for him at the end and clinched the win 6-3, 6-3.

Drayton Wade closely followed with a win at 2 singles. Avenging an early season defeat, Drayton placed his ground strokes nicely and reduced his errors to dominate line 2 tonight. The result reflects how dominant Drayton was tonight to get the 6-2, 6-2 win.

Brian Fitzpatrick was the last man out on the courts at this point for the varsity squad. After winning a lopsided first set 6-1, Brian found himself frustrated by some consistency problems. He trailed 2-5 in the second set before rattling off a service break and hold to stand at 4-5. Gaffney claimed the next game and forced the decisive tiebreak. Brian's stroke returned to him in the tiebreak as he lead from beginning to end and claimed the win with a 10-5 tiebreak.

Hunter and Seth got their season long wish and I played them together at 1 doubles. Taking on Gaffney's 2 & 5, I was hoping for a stronger showing. The result was a win, but it wasn't a walk in the park.

We are off until Monday when we take on Rock Hill at our place. We'll have the same starting lineup tonight at singles. We then have practice Tuesday and take on Nation Ford on Wednesday. Wednesday will be the last match for all team members and I'll be collecting jerseys on Thursday before or after the Clover match from those that received them. We'll have the top 10 players dress for the trip to playoffs, but all players are asked to come.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern HS
Result: Northwestern 7, Gaffney 0

1s: Seth Russell def James Belue 6-2, 6-1
2s: Drayton Wade def Nick Parker 6-2, 6-2
3s: Hunter Love def Trenton Trauh 6-0, 6-0
4s: Brian Fitzpatrick def Mark Lovingood 6-1, 4-6, 10-5
5s: Jonathan Clark def Clayton Whitt 6-3, 6-3

1d: Love/Russell def Parker/Whitt 8-5
2d: Ahmad Sheffield/Tyler Hutson def Alex Hinchliffe/Adam Payne 6-1, 6-0

Schedule update - Match added for Thu 4/30

2009-04-23T11:24:00.005-04:00

Clover called me today and had a scheduling problem and were without an opponent for next week. I agreed to play them as a playoff preparation match for both of us next Thursday at 4:00PM at our courts. That is correct, 4:00 PM, not 5:00 next Thursday.

This will be a varsity only match to prepare us for playoffs. We are also going to play it in a playoff style where we will have the 5 singles matches start first and the doubles will hold off so we can save our pairings until we see how the singles contests unfolding.

Again, this match will have an early start of 4:00 PM on Thursday 4/30 at our courts.

And also, as far as drinks and snack go, let's just have the boys playing bring their own for this one. There are vending machines next to the school if they need something.

Rock Hill stops Trojans

2009-04-22T20:03:00.003-04:00

We took the 15 minute cross town trip to take on our rival Rock Hill tonight. The result was a 2-4 defeat that could have gone either way due to a couple late comebacks from the middle of our lineup. Our overall record now stands at 5-6 and we are still 3-5 in our region.

We took an early 1-0 lead on the scoreboard with a dominant win from our doubles team of Hunter Love & Duncan Foy. The first set was a whitewash by our side. The second set was closer, but the match was never in doubt as we claimed the doubles line 6-0, 6-3.

Shortly thereafter, Rock Hill tied the score at 1-1 with a win at 5 singles. Tyler Leonard stepped in to fill in a void at 5 singles left by Alex being out of town and Jordan still being a little jet-lagged from the Hawaii trip. Tyler hung tough in the first set and dropped it 3-6. Unfortunately, Tyler's game got a little shaky at the same time Rock Hill's #5 got hot and the line dropped 3-6, 1-6.

We then fell behind 1-2 after the 2 singles match was decided. The first set had just about every game go to a deuce point, but not enough fell in our favor as Drayton Wade dropped the first set 1-6. Drayton continued to play well and claimed 2 games in the second set before the match was decided in Rock Hill's favor.

We were then able to tie it up at 2-2 courtesy of a huge comeback win from Seth Russell at 1 singles. The first set went to Rock Hill 3-6, but Seth kept battling and hitting beautiful shots to keep Rock Hill's top player on the defensive. Seth won the second set 6-1 and forced a 10-point match tiebreaker. The two players battled back and forth until Seth claimed a 7-5 lead at the second changeover. Rock Hill's player faced 2 match points from Seth, but only defended 1 as Seth won the tiebreak 10-8 to bring us back to even.

Still on the court at this point were Brian Fitzpatrick at 3 singles and Jonathan Clark at 4 singles.

Brian had dropped his first set 2-6 and was trailing 2-5. Brian went on a run to bring the score to 6-6 and force a set 7-point tiebreak. Unfortunately, Rock Hill's #3 played some great tennis to claim the line from us. Regardless, it was awesome to see Brian put the pressure on his opponent and himself in a position to win the line.

Jonathan started the match at 4 singles with a little inconsistency and fell behind by a wide margin early. He won some games late to make the set competitive, but dropped set 1 4-6. He then picked things up in the second and battled hard against a very steady player to win the second set 7-5. On to another tiebreaker we went with all eyes on court 4. Rock Hill's player really cleaned up his game and played well in the tiebreak. It was a shame that a match with so many 15-20 shot rallies ended with a short rally and shot into the net as Jonathan dropped the set tiebreak 5-10.

There's nothing we can do but press on with the rest of our season. We need a victory tomorrow over Gaffney to claim a spot in the playoffs. We then get a rematch with Rock Hill next Monday before a really big match at Nation Ford Tuesday night where we could claim 3rd place with a win.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:
Result: Rock Hill 4, Northwestern 2
Location: Rock Hill HS

1s: Seth Russell (N) def Alik MacLauchlin 3-6, 6-1, 10-8
2s: Austin Lee (R) def Drayton Wade 6-1, 6-2
3s: Kevin Gauldin (R) def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-2, 7-6
4s: Alex Silverman (R) def Jonathan Clark 6-4, 5-7, 10-5
5s: Nick Cauthen (R) def Tyler Leonard 6-3, 6-1

1d: DNP
2d: Hunter Love/Duncan Foy (N) def Cory Tretsky/Michael Adams 6-0, 6-3

Fort Mill defeats Trojans

2009-04-21T20:44:00.003-04:00

We took on Fort Mill tonight on our home courts on a windy day. Winds gusted around 20-25 mph all night and played havoc on both teams. We lost 5-1 overall, but had close calls at 1 singles and 2 doubles tonight. With the loss, we drop to 5-5 overall and are at 3-5 in our region matches.

Seth Russell played some brilliant tennis tonight. In a match that featured a lot of hard hitting and constant lead changes, Seth dropped a close one 5-7, 6-7.

Drayton Wade played well at number 2 tonight. Regardless of the 1-6, 2-6 defeat, Drayton hung tough on every point of the match and made his opponent work hard to beat him.

Brian Fitzpatrick hit the ball as well as he has all season tonight. It was impressive given the conditions and I was proud of how far Brian has brought his game this year. Despite the 1-6, 1-6 defeat, Brian can hold his head high knowing that he will only improve the rest of this year and over the next two seasons.

Our line victory came courtesy of Jonathan Clark at 4 singles. The first set of this match was tight and Jonathan eeked it out 6-4. Jonathan caught fire at the end of the first set and rolled into the second set jumping out to an early 3-0 lead. He held strong to close out the set 6-2. Jonathan, thank you - you are my first boys player to take a line from Fort Mill.

Alex Antezana struggled in the winds against a talented line 5 player. He was able to take a game in the first set, but had difficulties finishing in the second.

I really liked our chances tonight at 2 doubles. Fort Mills team is more seasoned and plays a prettier game than Duncan Foy and Hunter Love. I really felt that our team's spins and foot speed would be enough to claim this line. In the end, Fort Mill was too much and took a close one 6-4, 6-4.

This match is over now and we have a match against our in town rival Rock Hill tomorrow. Rock Hill was able to take 1 & 2 singles from Fort Mill yesterday in a 2-5 loss. We have the guns to beat Rock Hill. If we play our game and are determined to take city bragging rights, we will do just that. Lets beat those Bearcats!

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Result: Fort Mill 5, Northwestern 1
Location: Northwestern HS

1s: Robby Davis (F) def Seth Russell 7-5, 7-6(4)
2s: Kyle Orsburn (F) def Drayton Wade 6-2, 6-1
3s: Daniel Proctor (F) def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-1, 6-1
4s: Jonathan Clark (N) def Chase Lovins 6-4, 6-2
5s: Andreas Leon (F) def Alex Antezana 6-1, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Jon Ernst/Chase Riddle (F) def Duncan Foy/Hunter Love 6-4, 6-4

Spring Break Tennis in Rock Hill

2009-04-09T21:50:00.003-04:00

There are many tennis options in Rock Hill over the spring break week of April 13 - April 19. Whether you want to practice, compete, or watch tennis there is a choice for you.

1) The Rock Hill Tennis Center is having a high school special during the week. An hour and a half clinic is happening Monday through Friday for $15 per session or $50 for the whole week. Commitments from Fort Mill, Nation Ford, Rock Hill, and other schools have already happened. Call the Tennis Center for more details at 803-326-3841.

2) The Come-see-me Festival will once again feature an adult and junior tennis tournament the weekend of April 17-19. It is a SC Level 3 tournament that will feature some of the top players from the state. Find out more at http://www.usta.com/TennisLink/Default.aspx

3) Winthrop University will be hosting the Big South Tennis Championships the same weekend, April 16-18th. The men's side features defending champion Radford who has been nationally ranked as high as #61 this year. The women's favorite will be our Winthrop Eagles who have been ranked as high as #73. Neither team will have a cake walk to the automatic NCAA bid as the conference competition has been terrific this year. Find out more at: http://www.bigsouthsports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4800&KEY=&ATCLID=3698940

Go Trojans!

Trojans Come up With Region Win vs. York

2009-04-09T21:33:00.004-04:00

We traveled to western York county to take on the Cougars from York Comprehensive High School tonight. The Trojans were successful at all lines tonight as they came away with a 7-0 victory. The team is now 5-4 overall and 3-4 in region 3-AAAA.

Our first victory of the night came courtesy of Jonathan Clark at 5 singles. Leading 6-0, 5-0 Jonathan's opponent was holding his wrist and trying hard to keep continuing. After consulting with their coach, it was clear that the player should not continue and the line was defaulted to Jonathan via injury. Regardless, Jonathan played excellent tonight and deserved the win.

Our second victory came from Brian Fitzpatrick at 4 singles. The first set played fairly even with Brian winning it 6-3. The second set was all Trojans as Brian picked his game up a notch and blew his opponent off the court with a 6-0 second set.

The third line of the night was claimed by Drayton Wade. New shoes, different racket, whatever. Drayton lead from beginning to end and never allowed his opponent a chance to sniff a comeback as he closed out the win 6-1, 6-1 at 2 singles.

Our clinching line of the night came from Hunter Love playing at 3 singles. Hunter dominated action the first set 6-1 and was rolling in the second as he lead 5-0. The York opponent began to play more free-spirited and closed the gap to 5-4 before Hunter eventually won the second set 7-5.

The feature match at 1 singles had Seth Russell playing for the Trojans. Seth struggled to consistantly place his shots in the first set and fell behind 0-4 early. All the credit goes to Seth for turning the match in his favor, catching back up in the set and claiming the set in a tiebreak. Seth maintained the momentum against a frustrated York opponent and closed out the match with a 6-3 second set. It was a clutch comeback and earns Seth the game ball for the match.

Our sixth win was at the 2 doubles line with Jordan Beaver and Duncan Foy teaming up for the Trojans. The bounces went our way in the first set and the boys claimed the first set 6-4. I came back to the match as the boys clung to a narrow 3-2 lead. The match seemed lethargic and slow and I encouraged the boys to simply speed up the pace of play as it seemed they were letting York control the way things were happening. They did so to perfection and won the next three games for a 6-2 second set win.

Drayton and Seth again teamed at 1 doubles for a proset match. They lead early and held to it for the end. The match featured some great shots from both sides of the net and from all four players. The Trojan team was successful in the end with an 8-5 decision.

Reserve action featured teams of Alex Antezana & Tyler Leonard, Clollins Mauldin & Key Barkley, Jonathan Patton & Ahmad Sheffield, Ben Leopard & Tyler Hutson, and Jacob Page & Caleb Guyton. Each team won a decisive proset victory and several boys played singles matches as well. It was another strong showing for the Trojan reserves.

We will be off tomorrow as there are too many absences to have a successful practice. The next practice is Monday after spring break, April 20th. We have three matches that week including two region matches and a non-region match at Rock Hill High. I will announce lineups at the end of practice on Monday April 20th.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: York Comprehensive HS
Result: Northwestern 7, York 0

1s: Seth Russell def Chris Suggs 7-6, 6-3
2s: Drayton Wade def Jensen Fisk 6-1, 6-1
3s: Hunter Love def Kyle Spears 6-1, 7-5
4s: Brian Fitzpatrick def Nathan Patrick 6-3, 6-0
5s: Jonathan Clark def Adam Thomas 6-0, 5-0 retired

1d: Russell/Wade def Suggs/Fisk 8-5
2d: Jordan Beaver/Duncan Foy def Patrick Burnett/Charley Lawson 6-4, 6-2

Clover Too Much for Trojans on a Windy Night

2009-04-07T19:40:00.006-04:00

The boys took on Clover in a game of tornado tennis this evening. Winds that gusted up to 25mph created some interesting points in the match. Clover was too much in the end as we dropped a 0-7 decision. The loss drops us to 4-4 overall and 2-3 in our region. We are in 4th place out of the six schools with Fort Mill in 1st, Clover in 2nd, Nation Ford in 3rd, us in 4th, York in 5th, and Gaffney in 6th.

We had a great effort tonight at 1 doubles. Seth Russell and Drayton Wade hung with the #1 & #3 from Clover all the way into a tiebreaker. The bounces didn't go our way in the end as Clover held on for the win 8-7.

Alex Antezana played a strong match at 5 singles tonight. After a close first set was dropped 6-4, Alex displayed some nifty drop shots against Clover's #5 to make some great passes and claim the second set in a tiebreak. The decisive 3rd set tiebreak had Alex leading 7-5 at the second changeover. Unfortunately, Clover got hot and won 5 of the next 6 points to claim line 5.

Clover only had 8 players tonight so there was only one reserve match. Duncan Foy proved victorious in a tiebreak proset over his Clover opponent. Our reserve matches remain a positive thing for us to build upon as a team. We have claimed victories against every school we played this year.

We'll practice tomorrow at 4 in preparation of our road match Thursday to York High. This is an important match as York is much improved and we are leading them by only 1 region match. We'll take a larger than normal travel squad Thursday and I'll notify the team tomorrow of their travel status.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern
Result: Clover 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Chase Altieri def Seth Russell 6-1, 6-2
2s: Nick Deahl def Drayton Wade 6-2, 6-2
3s: Will Decker def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-0, 6-0
4s: Kenneth Long def Hunter Love 6-0, 6-0
5s: Josh Watts def Alex Antezana 6-4, 6-7(5) 10-8

1d: Altieri/Decker def Russell/Wade 8-7 (4)
2d: Dylan Waggonseller/JC Dougherty def Jordan Beaver/Jonathan Clark 6-3, 6-2

Trojans Drop Region Match to 8th ranked Fort Mill

2009-04-06T20:18:00.002-04:00

We traveled up US-21 to take on region power Fort Mill tonight. Our scores do not fairly reflect how far we've come as a team. At the beginning of the season, I would have said we'd be lucky to win games off Fort Mill. Tonight, we were in pretty much every game and won our fair share.

Seth Russell played a tough match at 1 singles and nearly staged a first set comeback. In the end, his Fort Mill opponent cleaned up his errors and won 6-4, 6-1.

Drayton Wade played perhaps the only opponent in region that can match his foot speed. The Fort Mill #2 has a bombing first serve and some good touch that proved too much for us tonight.

Brian Fitzpatrick played a little tight in the first set. He seemed to relax in the second set as he took a couple games off of Fort Mill's #3.

Hunter Love was definitely successful in frustrating his opponent at 4 singles. Hunter played a lot of deep backspin shots that gave Fort Mill's #4 fits at times.

Jordan Beaver played a highly touted 7th grader at 5 singles. His Fort Mill opponent is known in the junior ranks for being a backboard of an opponent that tends to make few errors. Jordan forced him into several in the second set and had him a little frustrated towards the end.

Our 2 doubles team of Jonathan Clark & Duncan Foy played a very strong match against a pair of 6-footers from Fort Mill. They hung in there til the end and forced the tempo for the majority of the match. Although they dropped the match 3-6, 3-6, neither played intimidated and they should have a good shot at this line in our next match up with Fort Mill.

Our reserves continued to play well as we took a singles and doubles match from Fort Mill. Alex Antezana blew his opponent off the court 8-0. Collins Mauldin and Jonathan Patton were also successful with an 8-6 decision. Ahmad Sheffield nearly had a clean sweep of the reserves, but fell in a tiebreak 7-8.

We play at home tomorrow against Clover. We'll get our challenge matches started at 4:00 and the varsity will start at 5:00. Dress warm as the temperatures are forecast to get into the low 30's tomorrow night.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Fort Mill HS
Result: Fort Mill 7, Northwestern 0

1s: Robby Davis def Seth Russell 6-4, 6-1
2s: Kyle Orsburn def Drayton Wade 6-2, 6-0
3s: Daniel Proctor def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-0, 6-2
4s: Tyler Davis def Hunter Love 6-2, 6-2
5s: Andreas Leon def Jordan Beaver 6-0, 6-2

1d: R Davis/Orsburn def Russell/Wade 8-3
2d: Kyle Patterson/Chase Riddle def Jonathan Clark/Duncan Foy 6-3, 6-3

Travel Roster / Home Roster - Fort Mill & Clover matches

2009-04-05T09:33:00.004-04:00

Monday 4/6 - Wear purple jersey or Grey T-shirt
@ Ft Mill travel roster (bus departs at 4:15):

Seth, Drayton, Brian, Hunter, Jordan, Jonathan C, Duncan, Alex, Tyler L, Jonathan P, Ahmad, Matt, Collins M

Tuesday 4/7 - Wear white jersey or white t-shirt
vs. Clover dress list*:

Seth, Drayton, Brian, Hunter, Jordan, Jonathan C, Duncan, Alex, Tyler L, Jonathan P

*Clover only has 10 players so there will only be 3 reserve matches. We will be doing team challenge matches on TUESDAY during the Clover match on our back courts starting at 4:00 PM. All the following players need to be in attendance in order to defend or challenge a roster spot:

1) Caleb vs. Phillip
2) Jacob vs. Ben
3) Collin S vs. Tyler H
4) Matt vs. Ahmad
5) Chris vs. Key
6) Collins vs. Michael

Go Trojans!

Two Match Cancellations, 1 Rescheduled

2009-04-02T14:41:00.003-04:00

We are going to be rained out today for the Nation Ford match. This match will be rescheduled for Wed 4/29 @ Nation Ford High.

The boys that were scheduled to travel (or any that want to join) will meet in the B building min-gym for an hour indoor workout this afternoon. We will have no practice tomorrow.

We also have had to cancel our Wed 4/8 match with Boiling Springs. They are three matches backlogged in their region and asked out of our match to use it as a make-up for their region match. We were unable to find a make-up date that works for both of us.

The good news is that we will finally have team practices next Wednesday and Friday!

Go Trojans!

Trojans Complete Sweep of Rival South Pointe

2009-04-01T19:26:00.005-04:00

The weather cooperated enough tonight for us to venture to the southern corner of the city to take on the Stallions of South Pointe at their facility. We were able to prevail after the middle of the lineup overcame some struggles to clinch the match for us. The win improved our overall record to 4-2.

Jonathan Clark provided our first point at 5 singles. Jonathan stormed past his South Pointe opponent in dominant fashion for a 6-0, 6-0 win.

Seth Russell nearly matched Jonathan's result at 1 singles. After a 6-0 first set, Seth completed the straight sets win after surrendering one game in the second set.

Our 2 doubles team of Duncan Foy and Hunter Love also were dominant tonight. They matched Seth's result with a 6-0, 6-1 victory for our third point of the night.

Things got a little interesting after that. When the doubles team clinched our third point we were up a set at 2 singles, but trailing in the second, trailing a set and down at 3 singles, and trailing a set at 4 singles with a lead in the second.

Drayton Wade played an excellent first set at 2 singles and claimed it 6-1. The second set was a little shaky as Drayton battled some inconsistencies and dropped the set 2-6. In the tiebreaker, Drayton got hot again, never trailed in claiming the tiebreak 10-3, team point, and the match for the Trojans tonight.

Jordan Beaver was the next to finish at 4 singles. After struggling in the first set and dropping it 3-6, Jordan was able to turn the match in his favor and win the second set 6-2. The tiebreak was dead even at 6 points each at the second changeover, but it wasn't meant to be as South Pointe claimed the line with a 10-6 decision.

Brian Fitzpatrick struggled early in his match at 3 singles and fell behind early 0-5. He was able to find a better rhythm and win 4 straight games before eventually dropping the first set 4-6. Brian continued to battle his opponent in a very tight second set all the way to a set tiebreaker. I thought he had enough momentum to win the set tiebreak and force another match tiebreaker, but was overcome in the set tiebreak in the end.

We dominated reserve action tonight and were successful at all singles matches with wins by Alex Antezana (6-0, 6-2), Michael Baldwin (6-0, 6-0), and Matt Pettitt (8-2). Our reserve doubles team of Ahmad Sheffield and Jonathan Patton were also victorious with an 8-2 decision.

Tomorrow's match at Nation Ford will be another region test for us. We will be a little short handed and some players will get opportunities to start tomorrow that haven't so far this season. This is a tremendous opportunity to step up and make a difference for yourself, your team, and your school. I'm looking forward to it.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Northwestern 4, South Pointe 2

1s: Seth Russell (N) def Seth Cooke 6-0, 6-1
2s: Drayton Wade (N) def Drew Carter 6-1, 2-6, 10-3
3s: Ian Sanford (S) def Brian Fitzpatrick 6-4, 7-6
4s: Rob Jolly (S) def Jordan Beaver 6-3, 2-6, 10-6
5s: Jonathan Clark (N) def Sam Gibbons 6-0, 6-0

1d: DNP
2d: Hunter Love / Duncan Foy (N) def Wil Herndon / Cody Deyton 6-0, 6-1

Northwestern Boys Take Region Match from Gaffney

2009-03-31T21:13:00.003-04:00

We made the long trek over to Gaffney High to battle the Indians in a region match up. We represented Northwestern well and claimed another region match. Our overall record now stands at 3-2 and we are 2-2 in our region. Tomorrow's match at South Pointe will not count toward our region standings, but goes a long way in inner-city bragging rights.

Our first match to clear the courts was Seth Russell at 1 singles. Seth had little difficulty with his Gaffney opponent and claimed straight sets 6-1, 6-0.

Jordan Beaver was next to finish up at 4 singles. Jordan was also dominant from beginning to end with a straight set 6-2, 6-1 victory.

Our 2 doubles team of Hunter Love and Duncan Foy was next to finish up as the Trojans claimed our third point with another 6-2, 6-1 victory.

The clincher for the boys tonight was Jonathan Clark at 5 singles. After a back and forth first set Jonathan took the first set in a tiebreaker. The second set was equally as tight and Jonathan plowed through for a 7-5 second set to clinch the match for the Trojans.

Brian Fitzpatrick played strong at 3 singles for us. Battling an opponent that played an emotional game, Brian was able to stay composed and claim a 6-3, 6-4 win for us.

Drayton Wade had the longest match of the evening at 2 singles. His unorthodox opponent gave him a test he was not able to adjust to in time before dropping a 6-3, 7-6 decision.

We'll remain on the road through Monday, with all the rescheduling, and travel to South Pointe tomorrow, Nation Ford Thursday, and Fort Mill on Monday.

There is rain in the forecast for tomorrow, but hopefully the tennis gods will put an umbrella over Rock Hill so we can get in our rival match and continue to gain momentum. However, if the match against South Pointe is rained out, it may not get rescheduled since our region matches have to be our priority.

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Gaffney HS
Result: Northwestern 5, Gaffney 1

1s: Seth Russell (N) def James BeLue (G) 6-1, 6-0
2s: Nick Parker (G) def Drayton Wade (N) 6-3, 7-6
3s: Brian Fitzpatrick (N) def Trenton Trauh (G) 6-3, 6-4
4s: Jordan Beaver (N) def Mark Lovington (G) 6-2, 6-1
5s: Jonathan Clark (N) def Clayton Whitt (G) 7-6, 7-5

1d: DNP
2d: Duncan Foy/Hunter Love (N) def Mihan Shah/Alex Hinchlift 6-1, 6-2

Clover defeats Trojans

2009-03-30T20:39:00.002-04:00

We finished up our match at Clover tonight. While the match began fairly even after last week's rainout, we were unsuccessful in taking any lines from a strong Clover team this evening.

We had two nail biters at 5 singles and 2 doubles. Both matches resulted in split sets and went to tiebreakers to decide the match.

Duncan Foy played at 5 singles and trailed 6-3, 5-1. Duncan came back to win 6 straight games to force the tiebreaker before dropping the tiebreak 10-5.

Brian Fitzpatrick & Jordan Beaver teamed up at 2 doubles and were successful in claiming the first set 6-4 and stormed out to a 3-0 lead in the second. Clover got hot in the second set to claim it and force the tiebreak as well.

We travel to Gaffney tomorrow for another region match. The bus will be behind the school at 3:15 to depart for the hour bus ride over. All Northwestern students are dismissed from 4th block at 3:00 and middle schoolers need to be written out by a parent to join us. The bus will depart no later than 3:25pm.

Go Trojans!

Result: Clover 7, Northwestern 0
1s: Chase Altieri def Seth Russell 6-2, 6-1
2s: Nick Deahl def Drayton Wade 6-0, 6-4
3s: Will Decker def Hunter Love 6-1, 6-2
4s: Kenneth Long def Jonathan Clark 6-2, 6-0
5s: Tucker DeLoach def Duncan Foy 6-3, 5-7, 10-5

1d: Deahl/Decker def Russell/Wade 8-3
2d: Josh Watts/JC Dougherty def Brian Fitzpatrick/Jordan Beaver 4-6, 6-3, 10-6

Travel Roster - Clover, Gaffney, & South Pointe

2009-03-29T14:35:00.006-04:00

Here are the players traveling this week:

Mon 3/30 @ Clover (Finish match started 3/25)

Wearing purple jersey or grey t-shirt:

Seth
Drayton
Brian (snacks)
Hunter
Jordan
Jonathan C
Duncan
Alex
Tyler L
Jonathan P
Ahmad
Matt (drinks)
Collins M

Tue 3/31 @ Gaffney

Wearing white jersey or white t-shirt:

Seth
Drayton (drinks)
Brian
Hunter
Jordan
Jon C
Duncan
Tyler L
Jon P
Michael (snacks)
Collins M
Key
Ahmad
Tyler H

Wed 4/1 @ South Pointe

Wearing Purple jersey or grey t-shirt:

Seth
Drayton
Brian
Hunter
Jordan
Jon C (snacks)
Duncan
Alex (drinks)
Tyler L
Jon P
Michael
Ahmad

Fort Mill's Courts are Unplayable Today

2009-03-26T14:44:00.003-04:00

Tonight's match has been cancelled. We rescheduled with Fort Mill for Monday 4/6.

We'll meet in the mini gym at 4:15 - 5:45 for indoor workouts tonight. Hopefully the weather will clear for tomorrow and we can actually get some hitting in, however the forecast is bleak for tomorrow as well. The same schedule will apply tomorrow in the mini gym if it rains again.

Go Trojans!

Clover Match Gets Started

2009-03-25T20:00:00.003-04:00

Well, we get an A for effort today. Clover's coach and I talked around noon and decided it would be a rain out. A couple hours later the skies cleared and we talked again and decided to try to squeeze our match in before it started raining again.

As luck would have it, it started misting on our way over. We got our matches started and the mist became drizzle. Before any sets were completed, the courts were unsafe to continue and play was halted. Dinner at Courtney's BBQ afterward sort of made up for a wasted trip over to Clover.

We'll travel back over to Clover on Monday to finish this match up. We were leading at 1 singles, tied at 5 singles, and leading at 2 doubles when play stopped. It could be an interesting finish on Monday!

Tomorrow, we'll assume were playing at Fort Mill. The storms in the area are supposed to stay with us through Saturday though. I told the boys that traveled:

1) Bring your uniform/match equipment as if we are playing at Fort Mill and the bus will leave at 4:15.

2) Bring practice clothes in case it rains out. If it rains, we'll be in the mini gym to work out.

I'm going to have an announcement tomorrow afternoon at the school either way so I don't confuse everyone as much as I did today. If non-travel players miss a rain out practice tomorrow - no big deal.

Go Trojans!

Ft Mill travel roster:

Seth
Drayton
Brian
Hunter
Jordan
Jonathan C
Duncan
Alex
Tyler L
Jonathan P
Ahmad
Matt
Collins M

Tonight's Clover match rained out

2009-03-25T11:58:00.004-04:00

Due to the storms in the area, we are rescheduling our match with Clover for Monday March 30. Those players assigned to drinks/snacks will be in charge on Monday.

Tonight we will have a conditioning session at 4:15 PM in the B Building Mini-Gym. The session should only last until 5:45 or 6 at the latest.

Go Trojans!