Tiger girls tennis earns fourth straight MBC championship

• Alina Stai

Tiger senior Alina Stai returns a volley during the wind-swept match the team played against Amery last Friday.

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Winning never gets old for the New Richmond girls tennis team.

The Tigers wrapped up their fourth straight Middle Border Conference dual meet championship by sweeping Amery last Friday, 7-0.

The conference championship is especially sweet for the Tiger seniors. Chelsea Anderson and Jenny Hudalla have been in the varsity lineup since their freshman year and have been part of all four titles. This is the third full year that Meghan Frank has been in the varsity lineup. Alina Stai saw part-time varsity action as a sophomore before moving into the lineup last season.

Friday’s match was played in a ferocious wind at the new high school courts and it provided a test in quick thinking and quick reflexes for the girls.

Tiger coach Denise Devereux told the team that both teams were battling the same elements, so they had to adapt.

“Footwork is the key in the wind. It was a good training drill for them.”

The Tigers showed good poise in dealing with the wind. They stayed on top of every ball, so if the wind changed the direction of the shot at the last second, they could still get a shot away.

Last Tuesday the Tigers locked up a share of the conference title when they defeated Baldwin-Woodville 7-0.

The Blackhawks are always one of the toughest conference opponents for the Tigers, so the coaches weren’t taking anything for granted. While the Tigers were able to win each match, there were some strong challenges along the way. The Blackhawks have six seniors in their lineup, so it was an experienced team the Tigers were facing.

One of the biggest wins for the Tigers came at three singles. Maggie Earley had been slumping lately, losing her past three matches. She then lost her first set against B-W.

The Tiger coaches stayed confident that Earley would find the aggressive style that carried her early in the season. It came back in the second set. She was able to win each of the final two sets by 6-2 scores.

Schedule

The Tigers play their final dual match of the season this Thursday, when they play at Hudson. This will be an important match for the Division 1 tournament seedings.

Those seedings come into play on Monday, when New Richmond hosts the WIAA Division 1 subsectional tournament. Monday’s tournament is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. and will be played at the courts at both high school buildings.

The players who advance through the subsectional meet will compete in the Marshfield Division 1 sectional tournament, which will be played next Wednesday.

The Tiger coaches are hoping that several of the Tiger entries will have seedable records in the subsectional tournament. Wins against Hudson on Thursday would help their seeding arguments substantially on Monday.

Tags: sports, tigers, tennis, prep