Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Bruins down Lady Trojans

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

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Trojans Win City Battle in Region Victory over Rock Hill High

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go Trojans!

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

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

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

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Clover hands Lady Trojans Region Loss

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

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

We travel to Rock Hill Thursday. Nuff said there.

Go Trojans!


Location: Clover HS
Result: Clover 5, Northwestern 1

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

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

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Trojans Defeat Stallions in Cross Town Rivalry Match

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

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Trojans Defeated by Nation Ford

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

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Trojans Claim Second Straight Match Over Byrnes

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