Women's Tennis
Thursday, May 5, 2011
MCHS Tigerettes take it to the limit in district final win
MCHS head coach Dickie Adkins could not remember the last time his Tigerette tennis squad had won the district team title, but he knew it was a long time ago and you cannot blame him for not thinking clearly after Allison Adcock drilled an overhead winner to clinch a gut wrenching 9-7 win with her doubles partner Kelsi Richardson over Page’s Brenna Minyard and Makenna Hart.
“This feels great, it’s been a while, it’s been a while,” said Adkins. “I take my hat off to Page. They were fired up for it and this could have gone either way. Luckily, we came out on top and we played the best tennis we have played all year.”
Adkins added, “This (Page) is probably the best team we will face until substate.”
In recent memory, nothing has come easy in Tigerette milestone wins and it was high drama at Old Fort Park on a chilly Wednesday afternoon in a match that looked like it would be over before doubles would even be played.
The three and half hour marathon 4-3 win by MCHS was bolstered by singles wins by the number one seeded Adcock, (6-4, 6-3) over Katie Hinton, Carly Brown took a (6-3, 6-4) win in the number five spot over Hannah Meenach, and Sara Tietgens came up huge with an exciting and important (6-4, 6-3) win over Megan Hinton.
“Our number five (Brown) came up with a big win and that was huge,” said Adkins. “She is a senior and she showed good senior leadership there and I am proud of her for understanding the team concept and her effort today was great.”
Lauren Blackmon lost (5-7, 4-6) to Hart and Richardson was upset (6-4, 2-6, 4-6) to the upstart Minyard, sending the match to the doubles portion of the required slate.
The Hinton/Hinton team took on determined Tietgens/Blackmon duo that battled before falling 8-4, tying the entire shooting match at 3-3.
All the while, one court over, the final doubles match was in progress and it was one for the ages as MCHS steered out to a 5-3 lead before Page stormed back to knot the score at 5.
The Tigerettes served up a winning game for a 6-5 lead, but the Lady Pats held serve too to tie the match at six.
The same scenario was followed the ensuing two games to make it 7-7 and MCHS held serve again for an 8-7 lead.
Richardson and Adcock have been in tight situations before and their experience shown through as the duo attacked and put Page in a big hole.
Adcock had one chance to win the title on an overhead winner that she missed, but the lefty was undaunted, coming back one point later to smash an overhead winner past her opponents to finish off the match 9-7.
“That was a lot of pressure put on those young girls in that match with everyone watching,” said Adkins. “We just had a little bit more tenacity than they did. We had triple match point that came back to deuce, then Allison had missed an overhead, and she came back and buried one. That just shows that if you have a bad shot, you can come back and have a good one.”
“At the last break, I just told them you are seniors and you have to go out as district champs and they stepped up and did it,” said Adkins.
The Tigerettes will play for the region title next week.
“This feels great, it’s been a while, it’s been a while,” said Adkins. “I take my hat off to Page. They were fired up for it and this could have gone either way. Luckily, we came out on top and we played the best tennis we have played all year.”
Adkins added, “This (Page) is probably the best team we will face until substate.”
In recent memory, nothing has come easy in Tigerette milestone wins and it was high drama at Old Fort Park on a chilly Wednesday afternoon in a match that looked like it would be over before doubles would even be played.
The three and half hour marathon 4-3 win by MCHS was bolstered by singles wins by the number one seeded Adcock, (6-4, 6-3) over Katie Hinton, Carly Brown took a (6-3, 6-4) win in the number five spot over Hannah Meenach, and Sara Tietgens came up huge with an exciting and important (6-4, 6-3) win over Megan Hinton.
“Our number five (Brown) came up with a big win and that was huge,” said Adkins. “She is a senior and she showed good senior leadership there and I am proud of her for understanding the team concept and her effort today was great.”
Lauren Blackmon lost (5-7, 4-6) to Hart and Richardson was upset (6-4, 2-6, 4-6) to the upstart Minyard, sending the match to the doubles portion of the required slate.
The Hinton/Hinton team took on determined Tietgens/Blackmon duo that battled before falling 8-4, tying the entire shooting match at 3-3.
All the while, one court over, the final doubles match was in progress and it was one for the ages as MCHS steered out to a 5-3 lead before Page stormed back to knot the score at 5.
The Tigerettes served up a winning game for a 6-5 lead, but the Lady Pats held serve too to tie the match at six.
The same scenario was followed the ensuing two games to make it 7-7 and MCHS held serve again for an 8-7 lead.
Richardson and Adcock have been in tight situations before and their experience shown through as the duo attacked and put Page in a big hole.
Adcock had one chance to win the title on an overhead winner that she missed, but the lefty was undaunted, coming back one point later to smash an overhead winner past her opponents to finish off the match 9-7.
“That was a lot of pressure put on those young girls in that match with everyone watching,” said Adkins. “We just had a little bit more tenacity than they did. We had triple match point that came back to deuce, then Allison had missed an overhead, and she came back and buried one. That just shows that if you have a bad shot, you can come back and have a good one.”
“At the last break, I just told them you are seniors and you have to go out as district champs and they stepped up and did it,” said Adkins.
The Tigerettes will play for the region title next week.
