GREENVILLE – The Greenville girls tennis team continues to roll up victory after victory as they had a busy week in winning 3 out of 4 matches last week to advance to 10-3 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

Coach Jim Koontz’s netters continue to serve and volley their way to victory after victory with consistent play from their relatively young squad. The only loss they had was to frontrunner Vandalia Butler 3-2, with one of the match losses being a forfeit at second doubles. This happened during warm-ups before the match even started. Vandalia Butler also has seven seniors on its squad that see extensive playing time so the future looks bright for the green and white as they battle for GWOC supremacy.

Last Thursday afternoon was the Lady Wave’s most impressive win as they knocked off highly regarded Tippecanoe, 4-1 at Tippecanoe. Natalie Milligan had her opponent Amelia Zweig looking for many swigs of water and dispatched her 7-5, 6-4. Second singles player Emily Marchal had the match of the night as she won over Mira Patel in three sets 6-3, 3-6 and 6-3. The third set she was down 3-0 before enforcing her own brand of Marchal law by burning up her Red Devil opponent with six straight games to ignite the Wave crowd. At third singles Abby Swensen swung by Katy Schultz 7-6, 9-7 in the tiebreaker and in the second relaxed a little by hitting her shots to win easily at 6-2. The winning continued at first doubles with Anna Manges and Marabelle Lance doing a victory dance over Camillah Jones and Rainy Messinger, 6-3, 6-0 by winning the last 12 games. Second doubles was the only loss of the night as Katie Baughman and Faith Mansfield could not field the shots of Annie Livesay and Claire Wint. They went down for the count on the court falling quickly at 6-1, 6-0.

Reserve warriors Amanda Chui and Cheyenne Hartsock played one exciting set and lost 7-5. Erin Stevens and Rowan Houston had some problems and lost 6-1 on the hard courts of Tipp Middle School. Rose Blocher and Emma Tutwiler lost a tussle in falling 6-4 for their score.

Last Wednesday, the Blue Devils of Brookville came a calling without 40-year legendary coach Marianna Wright and went down the wrong way as Greenville burned the SWBL squad, 5-0. Milligan had opponent Hannah May wishing it was the month of May in double bageling her, 6-0, 6-0. Marchal at second singles almost followed suit by dispatching her opponent Emma Burton, who was hurting after a 6-0, 6-1 defeat. Swensen at third singles swung for the fences and kept her shots inside the fences by blowing past Lauren Hinkle 6-0, 6-0.

First doubles had the team of Lance and Manges managing a win over tenacious foes Lindsay Hinds and Gabby Wakefield, 7-5, 6-0. At second doubles, Mansfield and Baughman spiced things up and defeated Sage Utrop and Jess Langford, 6-1, 6-1 for on court seasoning. The junior varsity squad showcased Chui at singles and she won 8 -0 in her pro set. Playing like pros were Hartsock and Tutwiler, who won a nail biter at 9-7. Stevens and Blocher blocked some nice shots at the net and prevailed 9-7. Chui switched to doubles and with her partner Rowan Houston rolled to a bagel win at 8-0 over the feisty Blue Devil squad.

Last Tuesday was the showdown of all showdowns as both the Green Wave and Aviators cavorted onto the court undefeated in the conference. Lady Wave luck was not on the courts at Vandalia as second doubles had to be forfeited before the match started. One of the second doubles players for the Wave slammed to the pavement during warm-ups and could not recover to play her match with her partner. This automatically put the Wave in a hole at 0-1. First singles player Milligan ran into a buzz saw in Xia Liniz losing out 6-2, 6-1. At second singles, Marchal stopped the bleeding and pounded out a 6-4, 6-3 win over Erin Dean. Swensen evened things up at two wins apiece at third singles in blazing past To Velasco 6-1, 6-0. Manges and Lance could not do their victory dance as they succumbed to Ashley Hess and Hannah Scarpelli 6-4, 6-3 in first doubles.

Last Monday, the Springfield Panthers had no answers for the powder keg seven of Koontz’s netters falling quickly, 5-0. Milligan blazed past her foe, Isabella Gianakopoulos 6-1, 6-1 in first singles, while Marchal matched Milligan’s score by slamming past fellow first namer, Emily Hosecke 6-1, 6-1 at second singles. Swensen prowled past her Panther foe from Clarke County in Katrina Dooley 6-0, 6-1 at third singles. Manges and Lance lit into Elizabeth Brown and Jasmine Owens at first doubles by whitewashing them, 6-0, 6-0. The second doubles duo of Chui and Baughman baffled their opponents , Audrey Hallmark and Lydia Wells by sending them no hallmark cards, 6-0, 6-0.

”We played very well this week and I wish we could have had a 4-0 count but bad breaks do happen on the court,” Koontz said. “This was an oddity I won’t forget as the courts were slick due to the incessant rain we have had and our player just happened to slip and went down. We now have to root for other teams to knock off senior laden Vandalia and keep winning ourselves to force a tie in the divisional standings. We look forward to having a very good week of matches with league coming up soon on the 25th at a place to be determined.”