SCH girls tennis tumbles at GA

Posted 10/10/11

[caption id="attachment_9228" align="alignright" width="169" caption="SCH senior Hannah Baxter stretches skyward to serve the ball in last week’s match at GA. (Photo by Tom Utescher)"] [/caption] …

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SCH girls tennis tumbles at GA

Posted

[caption id="attachment_9228" align="alignright" width="169" caption="SCH senior Hannah Baxter stretches skyward to serve the ball in last week’s match at GA. (Photo by Tom Utescher)"][/caption]

by Tom Utescher

Last Tuesday was the first day in some time without a hint of rain in the afternoon, so at last slippery courts and soggy tennis balls were not among the concerns of the racquetwomen of host Germantown Academy and visiting Springside Chestnut Hill as they met for a Girls Inter-Ac League match.

The Patriots made a strong showing at their new 12-court tennis complex, turning back the SCH Lions, 6-1, to level off their season record both in the Girls Inter-Ac League (2-2), and overall (5-5). The Lions fell to 2-6 overall and 0-4 in the Inter-Ac. Both are young teams; each franchise fielded just two seniors its line-up for last week’s encounter.

Alison Moise, GA’s sophomore number one, opened with a 6-1 win, and while SCH junior Hannah Baxter captured a few more games in the second set, the Patriot tenth-grader prevailed, 6-4. Another sophomore, Jen Stack, gathered momentum as she overcame the Lions’ senior number two, Casey Sullivan, 6-4, 6-0.

At third singles, SCH’s Jennie Lukoff has been one of the Lions’ most successful players this fall, and she went past fellow junior Alison Ke, 6-1, in their opening set last Wednesday. Ke came out like an entirely different player in the second set, and the rivals ground out a number of extended points before Lukoff finally nailed down the victory in a tiebreak set, 7-6 (7-3).

That would prove to be the visitors’ lone win of the afternoon, and the fourth singles contest went to Germantown senior Kelli Stack (sister of Jen) in a pair of 6-3 sets against Lions sophomore Hannah Brazier.

Springside Chestnut Hill’s first doubles combo of senior Bianca Reist and sophomore Natalie Rohner won their first set, 6-3, but the Lions upperclassman has a chronic wrist ailment that began to flare up in the second set, and with GA senior Kirby Begley and sophomore Nicki Korman leading 3-1 in games, the visiting duo had to withdraw and forfeit the match.

Two Germantown juniors, Shaina Goldstein and Ali Wright, won both of their sets at 6-4 against the SCH second doubles team of junior Emma Griffin and freshman Sara Mathes, and the Patriots completed a sweep in pairs play with a 6-2, 6-4 third doubles victory by freshman Amanda Izes and sophomore Emily Powers over two tenth graders for the Lions, Leah Beight and Rosie Nagele.

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