Trojans Defeated at Nation Ford

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

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

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

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