Lady Redskins sweep Lancers

May 4, 2012

LAKEVILLE — Knox got an emotional lift from its freshman No. 1 singles stand-in, and the Lady Redskins swept host LaVille 5-0 in a Northern State Conference girls tennis meet in Lakeville Thursday.
Brittany Fletcher filled in for usual No. 1 Shelby Gilbert, putting LaVille senior Brittney Haisley away 6-1, 6-2 in a quick two-setter for Knox’s first match point of the evening, and the Redskins went on to claim straight set wins on all courts.
“It was kind of a surprise today because our No. 1 singles player was sick today, and we direct-subbed in at 1 singles with a JV player and Brittney won. In fact, I told the team we’re going to Ponderosa because she won,” said Knox assistant coach Dick Wagner, filling in for head coach Mark Krom, who was directing Knox’s middle school team at home Thursday.
“I think since Brittney took the No. 1 singles spot and she won, and they realized how much trouble she’d have winning coming from a JV spot, that helped a little bit tonight. I’m sure it made everybody happy.”
The defending NSC champs — who lost six of seven players from last year’s conference-champion lineup — surrendered a total of only 14 games to their hosts, including six games in the opening set of 3 singles, where Zoe Mack extended Kayla Bailey to 13 games before falling in a 7-5 tiebreaker.
It was a letdown for the Lady Lancers after a competitive showing at the Concord Tournament over the weekend.
“Today was an opportunity for us to take a big step forward into having a lot of confidence going into our conference tournament next week, and that’s something that didn’t happen today,” said LaVille head coach Michael Sumpter.
“During our Concord Tournament, we played against St. Joe, we played against Concord, we played against Marian. Let’s face it, St. Joe is one of the premiere programs in the state, but we can go onto a court and we can hit tennis balls. But then we come out — with no disrespect to Knox — against other types of opponents and we don’t have any of that focus and that drive to make sure that we do what we’re supposed to do. Sometimes we look at our opponents and we say ‘Oh, hey they’re not hitting the ball really hard’, and so we play to their level. We get burned. It’s just frustrating. There’s a high and a low, and we can’t figure out what’s in between.”
Control was the name of the game at Thursday’s meet as blustery crosswinds forced players to make adjustments on the fly.
“The environment always dictates some change,” said Sumpter. “But I think with any sport, you have to be aware of what’s in your environment. If it’s windy, well I have to adjust; if it’s raining and I’m a baseball player, I need to adjust. So I think that there aren’t any excuses. You need to be a strong enough player to adjust, and they adjusted better than we did.”
Aside from Mack’s 13-game opening set, LaVille’s other bright spots came in JV play as Tabitha Lymburner and Samantha Gardner earned wins at 3 and 4 singles, respectively, to force a 2-2 tie with the visitors.
“Zoe Mack actually played really well in the first set. I think our JV did really well too,” Sumpter said. “Positives were our JV did really, really well, and I’m proud of their effort. And they didn’t quit. They fought every square inch of the court.”
• KNOX 5, LaVILLE 0
At Lakeville
Singles: 1. Brittany Fletcher beat Brittney Haisley 6-1, 6-2; 2. Kelsey Thomas beat Alexis Kertai 6-1, 6-0; 3. Kayla Bailey beat Zoe Mack 7-6(5), 6-1.
Doubles: 1. Chelsea Collins-Miranda Shepherd beat Hannah Lentz-Bailey Frick 6-0, 6-0; 2. Kylie Bridegroom-Samantha Brewer beat Kelsi Watts-Kaitlyn Haisley 6-3, 6-0.
JV score: LaVille 2, Knox 2