Lady Hornets Head Coach Ed Douglas says: The Lady Hornets won a very close match against a much better than expected Kirksville team 6-3 Wednesday at Danner. The win moved the Hornets to 9-1 for the season. We beat Kirksville last year so I didn’t expect a barnburner but that is what we had. Kirksville did beat us two years ago so I maybe should have expected a really tough match.
      Sydnie and Ali as expected won their singles easily but we were losing the 3 through 6 positions fairly badly and the #3 match was even so there was a real chance we would be down 4-2 going into the doubles. Kelly Westphal really came through and played great at number #3 singles and rattled off 7 of 8 games after being even at 3-3. That made the overall match score 3-3 going into the doubles.
     I was really thinking at that point that I had made a huge mistake not splitting up Sydnie and Ali in doubles which would most likely give us two more wins in doubles. We didn’t split them up at Marshall but there was well though out reasons to play them together there, in that the #1 team at Marshall was very good and we wanted to give Syd and Ali a chance to play together in doubles against a good team in case they chose to play doubles together in the post season. But in this case it was clear after the singles that I probably should have split up those two. Saying that, we told our girls that this was their chance to rise to the occasion to bring the team a victory.
      Syd and Ali won the #1 doubles as expected, although it was a well played match even though the score was lop sided. On paper it looked like we needed to win at the #2 position because Kelly at won at #3 and they were playing the #4 and #5 positions for Kirksville, #3 doubles didn’t on paper look like nearly as good a chance in that #5 and #6 for the Hornets lost 10-1 and 10-2 to Kirksville and we were playing the #3 and #6 making it even tougher.
     knew that Renee and Chelsea were better in doubles than singles but this looked like a long shot so I was focused on the #2 match. I got a report from a parent that we were up 3-0 at #3 doubles and I decided not to jinx them by watching so I stayed focused on #2 doubles. Sure enough at #3 we won decisively 8-3. I had to ask twice when told that the 8 in 8-3 was really us.
     Renee and Chelsea really stepped up when it counted. When there match was over we were down 4-5 at #2 so there win was huge. Then Kelly and Jozie turned it up a notch and pulled out a win 8-6 but it really looked like at several points that we would lose this match.”
     I told the girls this was a really good win for the entire team. Everyone stepped up and contributed when we needed it. That is what good teams do. Amanda and I were really proud of all of them.
     Next up is probably the toughest MEC match for the Hornets tomorrow at Danner against Benton, who was undefeated until the Hornets beat them at the Savannah/Benton tournament. I expect this to be a tough match.