U18 Girls County Cup Report
Group 1 – Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Yorkshire.
Claudia Marsala, Tor Pisani, Lib Crawford, Alice Patch, Georgie Sanders, Annie Westermann, Beth Marriott and Natasha Bierrum.
The Bucks girls were creating history by being only the 2nd Bucks team ever to be in Group 1 at U18 County Cup. The girls were greared up for the weekend and arrived in Bath with a sense of anticipation and energy. Being in Group 1 and seeing the counties we were up against we knew it was going to be a tough three days on the court with most players in the Top 20 in the country or higher in the Nation and two Counties going down at the end of the tournament. The eve before the first day we sat around and watched a motivational movie clip about an american footballer being blindfolded and having to carry his teammate across an American football pitch. The girls took a few quotes from the movie 'give it your very best', 'be a leader with your attitude and behaviour', 'you can achieve more than you think you can'. And supporting the team is everything! The young American was called Brock so the saying for the weekend was 'go Brock!!!'.
Day 1 vs Yorkshire (the eventual Group 1 winners)
Beth and Georgie took to the court playng 6 and 5 respectively. It was a tough start to the day with both girls being ousted against stronger opponents, Olivia Noble and Serena Nash. Alice (the 3rd set master) and Lib took the stage next. Alice true to her nickname battled for over 2.30hrs to finally succumb to Laura Hopton 5-7 6-4 6-3. Lib, Claudia and Tor, 3,2 and 1 battled hard, worked for every point, but came out 2nd best against Molly Reed, Georgia Craven and Jess Ren all ITF ranked players. Going into the doubles 6-0 the girls didn't look disheartened and were up for getting a rubber on the board. Annie Westermann came on for her debut match 2013 and partnered Georgie at 3rd pair with Alice and Claudia being a strong 2nd pair and Tor and Lib at 1. 3rd and 1st pair lost 6-3 6-1, 6-1 6-0. Alice again living up to her name and Claudia battled through to hard sets to take their opponents Georgia Craven (U16 Nationals runner up) and Serena Nash to the 3rd set breaker. The girls were within two points of winning however couldn't quite clinch our first victory of 2013. Yorkshire win 9-0.
Day 2 vs Hertfordshire (up for a win)
The singles line up was kept the same from Friday. Beth came out of the blocks fast and took the first set 6-1 verus Michaella Brown. Unfortunately Michaella came up with more answers than Beth and took the next two sets 6-2 6-1. The girls were busy screaming for Beth which spurred Georgie on to take Anna Popescu to a third set. Georgie was playing inspired tennis, playing to win, fearless tennis and at 3-3 in the 3rd it was anyones match. Anna stepped up at this moment and took the victory from Georgies grasp to win 6-4. A superb effort from Georgie. Alice and Claudia competed hard and lost their first sets 6-4 but couldn't do enough in the 2nd sets. Lib and Tor again came across Georgina Axon and Emily Arbuthnott who have both represented Great Britain. The girls fought hard and did their best but unfortunately it wasn't good enough. Onto the doubles with the hope and desire to gain Bucks first rubber, we had a good feeling a win was around the corner and we wondered who it would be. We changed the doubles line up with Georgie coming into 1st pair with Tor, followed by the solid pair of Claudia/Alice and then Natasha came on for her debut match playing 3rd doubles with Liberty agains Molle Crouch (No.2) and Michaella Brown (No.6). Lib and Tash started off all guns blazing winning the first set 6-4. We knew Herts would try to change things up and Lib and Tash lost the 2nd 6-2. All to play for in the 3rd set breaker, Bucks wanted the win bad. The rest of the team were going crazy from the side, we compared it to the nervous feeling we had last year going from Group 2 to 1. The tension was building and thankfully for the crowds nerves Lib and Tash took a 4 point lead. Herts however were not happy and came back to 6-6. Lib and Tash then played some inspired tennis and went 9-6 up. 9-7 up. 9-8 up. And then 10-8 Bucks get their first win in Group 1. We went mental!!! Unfortunately the other two pairs couldn't grab a win.
Day 3 vs Middlesex
The girls knew that their time in Group 1 was almost over and they were ready to get some more rubbers on the score sheet. Annie came into the Bucks line up at 6 and tried her best again Katarina Weymouth however Katarina was on a mission and took Annie down. Georgie played her third match at 5 against Brielle Koulen. Georgie lost the set 6-2 but we all knew the match wasn't over yet and at my end of set chat Georgie seemed very confident. The girls were neck and neck in the 2nd and at 4-4 the set was up for the taking. Brielle was moving out to one of Georgies big forehand and she fell to the ground with a suspected achilles tear. Brielle had to retire which meant Bucks got another win. It seemd that the physio was on and off the court on Day 3 because she had to visit Lib after her first set. Lib pulled a back muscle so could not complete her match so Claudia stepped onto the dreaded injury court vs Rebecca Smaller. Alice was busy have a battle against her fellow Halton teammate Holly Hutchinson. We knew it was going to be tough but with some inside informaton about her game, Alice's own cheerleading squad behind her and a strong gameplan to take her down. Alice went 6-1 4-1 down with Holly playing some big hitting tennis. Alice however didn't want to finish quite yet, dug her heels in, put a few higher balls into the rallies to take Holly out of her rhythm and suddenly the momentum changed. 4-1 turned to 6-4, the girls were getting louder and louder, Alice was loving it, we even saw a fist pump. Bring it on, Alice into another 3rd set. After a motivational change of set chat, fueling Alice with bananas they took to the court. Holly was able to get a better start which gave her a 2 game lead which she took to 5-3. Alice was able to claw back to 5-4 with an unbelievable forehand passing shot. 40-15 up on Alice's serve, however Alice was unable to clinch the game and after a couple of marathon rallies Alice lost 6-4. A superb effort from Alice! Claudia took the lead a 4-1 lead against Rebecca playing big hitting tennis, taking the ball on and moving up the court. However Rebecca came back at her and Claudia lost 6-4 6-4, a good effort. The girls couldn't quite carry the momentum into the doubles with Natasha and Annie, Claudia and Alice, Tor and Georgie coming 2nd.
A big learning experience for all the girls, the competition was very tough but the girls represented Bucks with pride, effort and determination. Highlight of the weekend was the awards ceremony that Claudia and Tor put on for being the seniors of the team. Claudia and Tor have played County Cup since U10 and are hoping to carry on playing Senior County tennis and study in America on a tennis scholarship. The girls have been a fantastic addition to the team with their leadership, energy, banter, commitment and pure competitiveness in County Cup matches. Claudia was undefeated in singles county cup matches before the weekend, a superb effort.