Loughborough Tennis Women’s 2nds played Stirling 1sts last Wednesday for another BUCS Wednesday fight for a place in the semi-final of the cup. Immie Harry, injured team member, reported for Label Sport.
Things got off to a great start with all our girls going a set up in the space of an hour, showing true dominance on all four courts. It was clear that our girls were on top form and this was evident when Julie Blackwood closed the first match to win 6-1 6-0, playing some of her best tennis yet. The wins just kept coming, with Laura Feely cruising through with a 6-2 6-1 win, Satoku Haru winning 6-3 6-2, and Michaela Knespl completing the singles wins in straight sets 6-3 6-0.
Going into the doubles, the girls from Stirling had nothing to lose and this showed when they went ahead on both courts with our Loughborough girls having to fight to regain control of their matches. Satoku and Natasha lost their fight for the first set, missing out in a tie-break, but this didn’t dishearten the pair and they went on to storm the second set 6-1.
However, in the third set tie-break the pair from Stirling picked it up and fought for every point; unfortunately our girls couldn’t make those winners and finished the match losing out only just with a finishing score of 6-7 6-1 8-10. Michaela and Julie managed to regain dominance of the Stirling side to go on to win their match 6-4 6-0.
The captain of the team, Laura Feely, was ecstatic at the win and commented, “It was a strong performance from the girls coming away with a comfortable 10-2 win today, our season so far has been excellent with us currently top of the table and fingers crossed we can continue our winning and get us back to premiership division.”
James Buswell, coach of Loughborough Performance Tennis, was watching the match today and commented on the girls’ performance so far, “We’ve seen solid performances throughout the season by all the team; I’m really pleased with them.”
The season so far for our women has been incredible, with the 1sts finishing second in the BUCS league table just behind Durham whilst the 2nds are claiming the top spot in their league with just two matches left to determine their final standing.
Good luck to the girls next week when they play Oxford 1sts at home at 1pm – get down to Dan Maskell to support them in their one of their final matches of the BUCS league.
Imogen Harry
