The Williamston Hornets tennis team traveled to Grand Rapids to take on the Mustangs of North Pointe Christian on Monday, May 4th. The Hornets lost the closely contested match 5-3. “I’m a little disappointed, but have to remember that 6 of our 12 players graduated from last year’s championship squad,” said Coach Stanley. “We knew we had some skill sets to develop and this match showed us we are not quite there yet,” he added. “But this is a great group of competitors and they will respond. They will practice hard and do everything they can to get ready for the CAAC championships, MHSAA regional and state competition,” he concluded.
There were some bright spots coming out of the contest as the number four doubles team started slow but came back for a solid 7-5, 6-3 win. “We struggled at first,” said Aubree Barton, “we weren’t playing well at all and I told Coacher than I didn’t mind losing if we were playing our game.” She then added, “He told us to relax, pick our targets early and work into the match and we would be okay. Erin (Graham) and I did that and we came out of it and played great by the end.”
The number two singles Hornet player, Claire Cooper had the opposite experience. She started the match getting ahead 5-1 in the first set, but then her opponent started hitting moon balls back and it frustrated her game, “She just hit everything high over the net and deep and forced me off the baseline. The rallies took forever and I would get a little impatient and miss.” Claire lost that first set in a tie break 7-6 (4). She found a strategy that worked a little better by hitting to her opponent’s back hand and waiting for a short ball she could take on the rise to rob her of a recovery step and won the next two very long sets 6-2, 6-1.
At number one singles the Hornets’ Tiffany Ash met a barrage of hard hitting shots from her opponent in the first set which she lost 6-1. “Taylor (Stephens) couldn’t miss in that first set,” said Tiffany’s dad Rich. “Tiff was a little lethargic in the beginning and Taylor took control,” he added. Tiffany showed her great competitive spirit as she fought back, point-by-point and won a close second set 6-4. She then cruised through the third set 6-0 to seal the come from behind victory.
In a match that could have gone either way, the number two doubles team of Erin Donovan and Audrey Porter, came out and dominated the first set 6-2. “We were hitting all of our shots in the first set,” said Erin. “Then we started missing and couldn’t get anything in during the second set,” she added. The Hornet duo lost the second set 6-1. The third set seesawed back and forth. Erin and Audrey fought off a couple of match points when they were down 5-4, came back to take the lead 6-5 but couldn’t serve it out for the win. They went into the 7 point tie break and again found it hard to keep the ball inside the lines and lost the match at 7-4.
Also losing for the Hornets were number one doubles, Anya Nikolai and Mattie Nelson 6-2, 7-5; number four doubles Cara Steinberg and Lean Vargovich 6-2, 6-1, and at number three singles, Gabby Meijer 6-0, 6-0 and at four singles Erica Krantz 6-2, 6-0.
The Hornets’ record dropped to 9-1 with the loss.