Trojans drop close one to Fort Mill

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

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

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

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

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

Go Trojans!

Box Score:

Location: Northwestern
Result: Ft Mill 7, Northwestern 0

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

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

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

Reserve Box Score:

Northwestern 6, Ft Mill 1

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

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

Schedule Change

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go Trojans!

Trojans Get Back in Win Column

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Go Trojans!

Location: Northwestern
Result: Northwestern 6, York 0

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

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

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

Clover Hands Trojans Region Loss

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

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

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

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