GREENVILLE – The Greenville girls tennis team began the 2015 season at home on Tuesday, falling 5-0 to fellow Greater Western Ohio Conference squad Beavercreek.
Despite getting swept in the season opener, Greenville girls tennis coach Jim Koontz said his team played pretty well against a tough Beavercreek squad.
“Did all right for the first match,” Koontz said. “Beavercreek has always got a nice team, one of the top teams in the area. They beat us 5-0 last year. And we played a lot of young kids today, and they did all right for the first time.”
In first singles Greenville’s Mallory Rich lost 6-0, 6-0 to Anna Jones. In second singles the Lady Wave’s Molly Hunt lost 6-2, 6-2 to Beavercreek’s Esther Hu. In the third singles match the Wave’s Neeps Kaur lost 6-1, 6-0 to Beavercreek’s Vania Jiao.
In first doubles Greenville’s duo of Anga Mertel and Anne Mangus lost 6-3, 6-1 to Adrianne Farwell and Rose Almazao. In second doubles the Wave’s Hannah Gulley and Larissa Schmitmeyer lost 6-1, 6-2 to Beavercreek’s Sarah Pfander and Saima Wase.
“They played hard,” Koontz said of the Greenville girls. “They gave it all they had. A lot of the games were close. It’s about what I expected.”
Greenville enters the 2015 with a lot of inexperience at the varsity level. It will take some time for the Lady Wave to develop and learn to play at the varsity level, Koontz said.
“We lost like four seniors plus the (Raquel Navas-Davis) girl, who moved to Findlay,” Koontz said. “That was the No. 1 player in the conference. I knew it would be kind of rough starting off. But I think they’re a bunch that is going to keep working hard and they’re not going to give up.”
In junior varsity action Marabelle Lance won a singles match against Beavercreek while the duo of Jordyn Warner and Rose Blocher won in doubles.
Greenville will return to action with matches at Celina on Wednesday and at Wayne on Thursday. The Lady Wave return home for a match against St. Marys on Friday.
