By Kevin Cunningham
Sports Correspondent
The Whitewater High School girls tennis team competed in two matches this past week, starting with McFarland on Sept. 8 at home. Against McFarland, the Whippets narrowly escaped with a victory, 4-3.
“It’s a good thing this wasn’t ballet, because it wasn’t pretty in spots, but we will always take a win over McFarland because they don’t happen very often,” Whippets head coach Tim Nelson said. “Amanda and Whitney played solid tennis throughout, but there were definite rough patches in all of the other matches that we need to work on improving. We need to take those rough spots and learn from them.”
Amanda Kraayvanger, Ali Ketterhagen and Whitney Treder each provided the Whippets with wins in singles. Kraayvanger won her match, 6-1, 6-1; Ketterhagen won her match, 6-1, 6-4; and Treder won her match, 6-1, 6-0.
The No. 1 doubles and No. 2 doubles matches each went McFarland’s way, but in No. 3 doubles, the duo of Odessa Sonn and Sophie Olson sealed the victory. The win didn’t come easy, as the duo competed in a three-set match, winning, 4-6, 6-3, 10-4.
After McFarland, the Whippets had a bit of a break due to a tournament being canceled on Saturday. The team’s next match took place on Sept. 13 against Edgerton.
Whitewater won this match a bit more convincingly, coming away with a 5-2 victory. Nelson broke down the win.
“Our singles really carried us through tonight with a final little pick up at No. 3 doubles,” he said. “All of the girls played good solid tennis. The match of the night was actually one that we lost at No. 2 doubles. The match went 2 1/2 hours as almost every point went 10-plus hits and a majority of the games went to deuce.
“Even at the spots that we lost tonight I saw improvement from our match last Thursday. No. 1 doubles played some very nice points, they just couldn’t put together enough to pull out games, it was closer than the score indicated. The girls were instantly asking about when they would get another chance at them. We obviously still have work to do as we get ready for undefeated East Troy.”
The four singles matches against Edgerton ended in Whippets victories, while the lone doubles victory once again came from the duo of Sonn and Olson.
