Rain during the afternoon created puddles on the tennis courts, but the Yellow Jackets brushed off the water with their wings and jumped up to hit the ball for a tie against Berkeley Springs on Tuesday.
Moorefield Girls Tennis edged the Lady Indians 4-3, while the Berkeley Springs Boys Tennis needed a tiebreaker set to secure the victory over the Yellow Jackets to even the overall matches.
“We are doing okay. We keep on improving during each match. Having all this rain means we have had more games than practices. We need to work on our drills,” Moorefield Tennis Coach Traci Eskridge Alley commented.
The sun came out from behind the clouds as the girls doubles matches commenced the competition.
Berkeley Springs No. 1 Girls Doubles of Dalas Carder and Natalie Hashem started with effective volleys to garner a 6-1 advantage, but Moorefield’s Haley Gallahan and Cara Jo Long refused to fold and rallied for an 8-6 tiebreaker victory.
Gallahan and Long knew what it would take to make the comeback, encouraging each other with taps of the racquets and communicating during each volley to coincide with precision serves and returns that have stamped success this season.
“We were overconfident to start the match. We thought we would roll right past Berkeley Springs, but they came out doing really well. They played better than we expected. We calmed down and started to talk with each other. We started to rally by playing our game, hitting the ball in the right spots and waited on their mistakes. We will come out ready to play at the PVC,” Moorefield junior Cara Jo Long remarked.
Moorefield Girls Tennis No. 2 Doubles of Kim Miller and Kristin Duncan fought hard against the Lady Indians, but Lizzy Langenstein and Leah Reed collected the win 8-6.
Duncan always appeared poised for each serve-receive, standing with her racquet up in the air and Miller was alert at the net.
Miller showed how she could fly, leaping up to make hits approaching the net and the communication helped when a volley went awry as Duncan was there to make backhand returns.
Both made good placements on serves, keeping the ball in play to make Berkeley Springs work for points.
[private]
Moorefield Girls Tennis No. 3 Doubles pair Julie Bowen and Taylor Lyons garnered an 8-2 victory over Lady Indians players Emily Ruiz and Sam Herbst.
Bowen and Lyons shifted on the court with good communication and made precision volleys to create the advantages to earn points.
In the girls doubles exhibition, Moorefield’s Hannah Ratliff and Zanna Parker won in a shutout 8-0.
Moorefield Girls No. 1 Singles senior Nautica Crosco didn’t lost a beat with her fast footwork on the court and intelligent lobs to make Berkeley Springs Dalas Carder chase for return attempts during an 8-2 victory.
Crosco complimented that hitting strategy with solid serves accurately landing for points.
Carder had a tendency to charge the net and that was immediately noticed by Crosco, who took full advantage of that with those lobs.
“My serves definitely helped out a lot today. Another key to my win was that I saw she charged the net, so I did what I love to do and lobbed the ball,” Moorefield senior Nautica Crosco stated.
Long picked up an 8-5 win against Berkeley Springs Natalie Hashem in the No. 2 Singles match.
Hashem had some trouble returning shots with her backhand, so Long capitalized on that weakness.
Long purposely volleyed the ball to the side of the court forcing backhand returns, then countered with cross court shots to earn points more effectively.
“I observed she had a weak backhand, so I drew her to the side and made cross court volleys which helped me win,” Long noted.
Long didn’t appear too happy during the match and Hashem asked her if she ever smiled, but as a fan the matches look intense and one must not have time grin all the time.
Berkeley Springs Girls No. 3 Lizzy Langenstein edged Moorefield’s Haley Gallahan by a score of 8-5.
Gallahan was making good shots across the court, but finding a consistent rhythm was difficult as Langenstein changed up attacks throughout the match.
Berkeley Springs Girls No. 4 Leah Reed was very talkative with Moorefield’s Kim Miller during the match and managed to come away with an 8-3 victory.
Between one point, both talked for several minutes at the net before switching sides.
“I like to make friends. We had similar styles of play,” Moorefield Girls Tennis No. 4 seed Kim Miller said.
Miller charged the net quite a few times on returns and several big jumps to save the ball.
Moorefield Boys Tennis No. 1 Doubles pair of Corey McCullough and Daury Sanchez lost to Berkeley Springs Dylan Carder and Matthew Rubeck by a score of 8-2.
McCullough and Sanchez had some unforced errors, but kept in the match with hustle and backhanded saves.
Moorefield No. 2 Boys Tennis Doubles of Nick Simpson and Jonathan Smith defeated Berkeley Springs Caleb Stotler and Ben Michael 8-3.
Simpson had his signature flamingo style jump serve paving the way during the match.
Smith made unique return volleys putting his racquet at a 20-degree angle and slicing over the top of the ball which created a backspin which was hard to react to once it bounced over the net.
Stotler and Michael had some sharp returns, but Simpson’s net play was solid with fast backhand returns and a handful of leaps for smash hits.
Moorefield Boys Tennis No. 3 Doubles of Atikilt Tamiru and Curtis Moran won by a forfeit against the Indians.
In singles action, Moorefield lost the top three matches including a tiebreaker set that determined the overall series win.
Carder produced an 8-1 victory in the No. 1 Singles match for Berkeley Springs over Yellow Jackets’ McCullough.
McCullough had his bandana on and was ready for action, making volleys all around the court and was kept on his toes by Carder hitting cross court.
Serving was tough with second attempts happening more often during the match.
Berkeley Springs Boys Tennis No. 2 Caleb Stotler beat Moorefield’s Nick Simpson 8-3.
Simpson charged the net a plethora of times and Stotler was able to counter with lobs as Simpson stayed busy dashing back to the fence to make saves or to just crash with an error.
Simpson landed a number of his jump serves and kept the match interesting with the unpredictable direction the ball would travel.
Stotler had Simpson running and lured him toward the net with one last short volley after chasing the ball at the back of the court which led to Simpson tumbling over the net unable to stop his momentum going for the return attempt.
“Every player I have met likes my serve. Every partner I have had flicks his wrist for the backspin, even I have learned to use it. I don’t deserve any hugs today, because I touched the net. My goal was not to touch the net today,” Moorefield Tennis No. 2 Boys Singles player Nick Simpson commented.
Miller tried to give Simpson a hug after the match.
The longest match of the night was the Moorefield Boys No. 3 Singles set which ended in a 9-7 tiebreaker win for Berkeley Springs player Matthew Rubeck edging Moorefield’s Jonathan Smith.
This was the final and decisive match of the night as the team victory went to the Indians.
Smith and Rubeck worked for every point, showing hustle on both sides of the court.
There were some points that lasted longer than others due to each player making the returns on the volleys as the fans watched the ball bounce back and forth over the net reminiscent of a badminton game.
Smith flicked his wrist causing the racquet to skim over the ball for a backspin and that was an effective strategy to earn points.
Both players were hustling to the ball, including a late match volley by Rubeck which had him diving to make a save resulting in a point and scrapes from the effort.
Moorefield Boys No. 4 Singles player Daury Sanchez defeated Berkeley Springs competitor Ben Michael 8-nil.
Sanchez kept the ball in play with attacks going in different directions which caused many return errors.
Moorefield Tennis won’t let rain drench the success on the courts this season.
[/private]