RMHS slips past Union Pines in NCHSAA girls tennis
October 29, 2009 By Charles Alston of Rocky Mount High School
ROCKY MOUNT - Rocky Mount's girls tennis team stood up to a tough Union Pines team Wednesday afternoon at Sunset Park and prevailed 5-4 in round 2 of the NCHSAA 3-A girls dual team tennis state playoffs.
Up next will be an old foe - fellow Big East member Wilson Fike - next Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Sunset Park's courts. Rocky Mount (17-4) won the No. 1 seed in a draw with Fike (19-3) as the two teams finished tied for the conference championship and split their regular season meetings.
"Wow, what a match," exlaimed a very happy Barry Nethercutt, Rocky Mount's head coach/ "I preach all the time that you only have to play a few points better than the opponent to win and that's what the girls did today. Julia (Amend) came up enormous for us winning her third set tiebreaker by just three points. I didn't know if she would regroup or not after dropping the second set and she trailed early in the breaker, but got it even at 7-7 and got a couple big shots back deep and forced three unforced errors from the UP girl and pulled out what turned out to be a must win and give us a 4-2 lead.
"Addie (Keeter) also came up big," said Nethercutt "She was down 4-1 in the second set and we changed plans and had her come to the net early in each point rather than staying back and trying to out rally UP, and she won five straight games to close out the match.
"No. 1 doubles really could have gone either way, it was 8-8 and UP broke and then Nina (Wanko), who is one of the top players in the state, was able to serve it out," he said. "No. 3 doubles was not what you would call a classic doubles match with players coming to the net often, but it was hard fought and intense. We led 5-1 before UP's No. 6 player really picked up her game and they came back and actually led 7-6. But Margaret (Arroyo) was able to keep enough ground strokes deep and away from their net girl and Elizabeth (Thompson) picked off some big volleys at the net. After blowing three match points at 9-7, we finally held serve to win the match 10-8 and advance to the final fight.
"This was one of those matches where the girls mental toughness that was missing early in the season showed and it was really good to see. Hopefully it shows again next week."
Rocky Mount 5, Union Pines 4
Singles
1. Ninna Wanko (UP) def. Lindsay Thomas 6-1, 6-1
2. Kate Gray (RM) def. Melissa Tally UP 6-2, 6-2
3. Addie Keeter (RM) def. Jordan Smith UP 6-1, 6-4
4. Madison Kramer (UP) def. Caroline Nelson 7-5, 3-6, 7-6( 10-5)
5. Margaret Arroyo (RM) def. Laura Crameron 6-0, 6-2
6. Julia Amend (RM) def. Brittany Jones UP 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (10-7)
Doubles
1. Wanko/Smith (UP) def. Thomas/Gray 10-8
2. Tally/Kramer (UP) def. Keeter/Nelson RM 10-5
3. Arroyo/Elizabeth Thompson (RM) def. Cameron/Jones 10-8 |
NATIONAL
NORTH CAROLINA
