Generals remain in second with strong showing in OCC tennis tournament

  • brian questel
  • October 5, 2011
  • 278
                        
TENNIS COACH IS TO SEND THE MISSING NAMES THIS A.M. 101011 OCCtennis Promo: Trio of seconds help Wooster netters nail down second in OCC Tennis Championships Generals remain in second with strong showing in OCC tennis tournament By Brian Questel There wasn’t any snow or gloom of night. The rain, though, was another matter. When Mother Nature couldn’t deliver decent weather for the Ohio Cardinal Conference Championship October 1, Saturday’s day-long showers forced the tournament indoors at Lexington’s Lakewood Racquet Club and into 8-point pro sets. That hardly slowed down Lady Lex as it continued its domination of the sport. Lexington, which went through the OCC regular season unbeaten again, wrapped up its ninth title as it won the meet with 64 points. Wooster enjoyed a five-point spread over West Holmes, 45.5-40.5, while Orrville and Ashland were both a distant fourth with 27.5 points. Clear Fork managed 10 points, followed by Madison (9.5) and Mansfield Senior (5.5). Wooster finished the day with a trio of seconds, getting runner-up marks from Ally Bucher at third singles and in both doubles’ matches as the Generals locked down the runner-up trophy. “We did a nice job,” said Wooster coach Stan Burris. “We were only one point ahead of West Holmes going in so we had to play tough against them if we wanted to hold onto second place. We knew Lex was going to be tough to catch. “We had a couple matches where we went head-to-head with West Holmes and we won those matches at third singles and first doubles to keep us moving in the right direction. We had three in the finals against Lexington and you want to make sure those come in the finals. If you meet them in the first or second round, you’re not going to fare well (overall).” At first singles, Sami Murphy won her first match 8-0 over Senior’s Lisa Rainey before losing to eventual runner-up Elise Betscher of Lexington 8-2. In her consolation match for third place, Murphy topped Shelbie Miller of Ashland 8-1. Amanda Petit won her first match at second singles as well with an 8-0 win over Clear Fork’s Carolyn Rehbein before she lost to Lexington’s Alex Griebling (8-0) and Alayna Anderson of Ashland (8-6). Ally Bucher won her first two matches at third singles to vault into her championship match at third singles as she posted an 8-2 victory over Ashland’s Taylor Campbell and then beat Marki Hogle of West Holmes 8-4. Both doubles’ teams won their first two matches. Ally Huttinger and Claire Ballard won their opening match against Mansfield Senior’s *** Kemerling and *** Beeson 8-0 and then West Holmes’ Jenna Polen and Hannah Frank 8-2. Lexington’s Jillian Earnest and Nicole Dragos then flipped that score on the Wooster duo in the championship match to win 8-2. Allie Vanata and Maggie Guttman defeated Clear Fork’s *** Gunn and *** Thomas 8-0 and then picked up an 8-2 decision over Ashland’s Emily Gruber and Maggie McGinty. In the title match, Courtney Ahmed and Erika Witchey of Lady Lex emerged with an 8-2 decision over Vanata and Guttman to take top honors. “All the kids played tough,” said Burris. “It was a weird week because of the rain. Previously were had been playing 2-3 matches a week, so with a little time off I was concerned with how we would respond. We did a nice job. It was a tough day being indoors and playing pro sets instead of being outside. You have to get off to a good start … you have a 10-minute warm-up and then you play. The kids were ready and they did a nice job.” The Generals wrapped up their regular season with a 14-3 mark overall and were 6-1 in the OCC, which was a testament to a competitive season. “We won a lot of 3-2 matches,” said Burris. “Most were not 5-0 blowouts. We played good teams on our schedule and we had a bunch of matches come down to the third set. When you play hard and work hard, good things happen … good things happen when you are prepared.” Wooster opened its postseason tournament at Canton’s Weis Park Courts October 3. All three singles players won to advance to matches on October 5. Murphy had a first-round bye and won her second-round match as she moved into third-round play; Bucher captured both her first- and second-round matches as she gained third-round play, while Petit played one match and advanced to the second round. Both doubles teams went 1-1 and were eliminated from the tournament, ending their season.


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