The Jefferson Forest girls tennis team knocked off Halifax County 7-2 in non-district action Thursday evening.
According to head coach Donna Hudson, Halifax (1-1) just couldn’t seem to pull it together two days after beating the Cavaliers at home and the Comets’ mistake came back to bite them.
“JF plays in a different district and they do things a little differently at their home court,” Hudson said. “They always play doubles first. We had played very well against them in doubles at home but could not get our act together to win games against them Thursday. We struggled to find the baselines and we hit way too many balls back up the middle. We just couldn’t dial it in and lost all three doubles matches.”
In No. 1 doubles action, JF’s Mallory Marstellar and Rita Zing knocked off Christina Bruce and Myah Forest 8-1. The Cavaliers followed with a win in the second doubles match as Amelia Edmonds and Raina Shah defeated Abigail Baisch and Francesca Potenza. JF completed its doubles sweep with Megan Bell and Kylie Wiltzius’ 8-4 win over Meredith Duffer and Kendall Crowder in the No. 3 doubles spot.
Things started rough for the Comets in singles action as Marstellar knocked off Bruce 8-1 in the No. 1 slot.
“[Christina] played very aggressive tennis against this aggressive opponent and had impressive serves the whole match,” Hudson said. “She is gaining more control with her returns but was not able to push hard enough to win games against [Mallory].”
Forest picked up Halifax’s first win, defeating Piper Cook 8-5.
“[Myah] played a really good match against JF’s No. 7 who was substituting for their No. 2 seed. The pace was slower than what [Myah] usually plays but each exchange was much longer,” Hudson said. “[Myah] had to play with more patience than she has been accustomed to as each time they hit six or more shots before someone lost the point. It was a good experience for [Myah] to have to develop strategies against that type of opponent and she pulled through for a nice win.”
Baisch couldn’t keep the momentum going as she fell to Zing 8-0 in No. 3 singles action.
“[Abby] and [Rita] have very two different styles of play and in this contest, it did not go well for us,” Hudson said. [Abby] could consistently return serves from this aggressive player but if she didn’t add pace her opponent jumped on them and sent them back out of reach. In spite of [Abby] moving well and going hard for balls, she could not get enough momentum to make a dent in this girls’ game.”
Edmonds knocked off Potenza 8-1 in the No. 4 spot.
“[Francesca] gave 100 percent in effort but today was a day when she just couldn’t get as many balls to fall within the lines as normal,” Hudson said. “Her opponent was successful in placing her balls strategically and that was difficult for [Francesca] as she worked to cover a lot of ground for game after game.”
In No. 5 singles action, Bell defeated Duffer 8-4.
“[Meredith] was pretty evenly paired and looked strong through most of this match,” Hudson said. “She hits sharp returns that are targeted and are difficult to return. She stays focused and is going to be working on consistency and reducing unforced errors.”
Crowder concluded the evening with an 8-3 win over Wiltzius.
“[Kendall] was nicely warmed up and much less nervous after playing doubles first tonight and it showed,” Hudson said. “She jumped out to a 3-0 lead and played aggressively to take this match. She is a hard hitter and when she can keep her shots between the lines, she is formidable.”
Halifax returns to action Tuesday when it opens Piedmont District play with a match against Patrick County at 5 p.m. at Martinsville High School.
Davin Wilson is the sports editor for The Gazette-Virginian. Contact him at dwilson@gazettevirginian.com.
