Eskymos take Kingsford Invite for tennis
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ESCANABA -- The Escanaba girls tennis team made their annual trip west for the Kingsford Invite and took the title by one point over the home team Flivvers.
Six schools competed with Escanaba coming in first with 25 points, Kingsford was second with 24 and West Iron County was third with 14. Norway collected eight points to finish fourth, Ironwood was fifth with six points and Iron Mountain rounded it out in sixth with three points.
The Eskymos made it to the finals in seven of the eight matches and won in four of them. The first championship came at No. 2 doubles where Lily Benetti and Isabella Noblet were able to win in two sets 6-2, 6-2 in their first match. The championship match against Kingsford proved to be a lot tougher as they held on to win 7-5 in the first set and also took the second set 7-4.
"Bella's footwork was the best it’s been all year," Eskymos coach Chris Ogren said. "She moved well at the net by both moving in on the attack and backing up to defend and Lily complemented Bella perfectly by running down countless tough balls at the baseline and the two have natural chemistry on the court and are playing better and better tennis every match."
The second championship of the day came at No. 3 doubles as Emma Landwehr and Alexa DeGrand advanced to the championship match defeating Norway 6-0, 6-2 as they advanced to take on West Iron County. They took the first set 7-5 and lost 6-4 in the second set.
"Emma and Alexa looked like the stronger team," Ogren said. "Emma's combination of lobbing and aggressive net play complemented Alexa's strong volley game that took them to a 10-point tiebreak to determine the winner."
The third championship came at No. 3 singles as Varrah Veeser defeated Norway 6-2, 6-3 to advance to take on the same girl she faced three days earlier and came away with the win in two sets 6-3, 6-1.
"It was great to see Varrah win the match so much more cleanly today," Ogren said. "She has been doing a great job of moving around on the court and has recently shown an improved use of her backspin and her game is coming together nicely."
The fourth championship came at No. 4 singles as Escanaba's Amelia Alimenti and Kingsford's Chole Lanning about halfway through the match it was known that the winner would seal the championship for her respective school. Amelia took the first set 6-2 but then quickly found herself down 3-1 to start the second match although nobody told her that the tournament rested on her shoulders it was as if she knew she had to pull through for the team.
Amelia responded by finishing out the set winning 6-3.
"Despite her youth, she came through in the biggest moment," Ogren said. "The future is bright for her and today was a big moment for her and our team."