GREENVILLE – It was back to business on Tuesday for the Greenville girls tennis team after the long holiday weekend.
The Lady Wave hosted Fairborn in their first of three matches this week and wasted no time in taking care of the Skyhawks 5-0.
In singles action, Natalie Milligan handled McKayla Lyons 6-0, 6-0 to improve to 5-2 on the season.
“I think we did really well today,” Milligan said. “I’m happy with how we all played today, especially I think all three singles were 6-0, 6-0. I think it will prepare us for our matches tomorrow and the next day. We know they will be challenging.”
It nearly was a 6-0, 6-0 sweep in singles play, but Emily Marchal’s second singles opponent Tiana Thomas did win one game to prevent the clean sweep. Marchal won over Thomas, 6-1, 6-0 to move her record to 3-2 at second singles. In third singles, Abby Swensen swept Melissa Le, 6-0, 6-0.
“We play them every year and it is always a good test for us,” GHS coach Jim Koontz said. “They are a nice team and our girls rose to the occasion today. It is a good win for us. We’re 6-2 now and hopefully we keep building on that.”
On the doubles courts, Anna Manges and Marabelle Lance gave up only one game to their first doubles opponents Rita Chien and Caitlin Bowling in a 6-1, 6-0 victory. At second doubles, Felicity Lance and Faith Mansfield took care of Amanda Wilson and Katelyn Byczkowski 6-1, 6-1.
“Our match was pretty good,” Manges said. “We had some good shots. Marabelle and I are pretty good friends, we have been for a while, and I think we work pretty well together.”
Manges is a senior this year and moved to doubles after playing mostly at second singles a year ago.
“I always liked playing doubles,” Mages said. “It hasn’t been too terrible of a transition, but it has been an adjustment.”
The Lady Wave have had to deal with some effects of Mother Nature this season to the tune of five rain outs thus far. Normally, this is the halfway point of the 20-match season, but at 6-2 in eight games the Lady Wave are just a little behind in their schedule.
“We’ve had like five rain outs over the past couple of weeks,” Koontz said. “It hasn’t been too difficult to deal with. We just play it when we get to it.
“Both Natalie and Anna are pretty solid players for us,” he continued. “They are sound players fundamentally. They are good kids and both have been here for a few years. They give it all they’ve got out on the court.”
The rest of this week contains two more home matches for Greenville. Today, Sidney Lehman Catholic will visit followed by Troy on Thursday.
“It wasn’t too difficult with the heat today,” Milligan said. “We prepared for it all summer long by practicing from 4 to 5:30 p.m. four times a week beginning the first week of June.
“I think we’re finally getting on a roll as a team,” she continued. “We’ve beaten teams we expected to beat and we lost to a couple of teams that were expected to beat us, but we did at least go down fighting. We have some difficult matches ahead still, but if we play our best I know we can win them.”
