The girl's team consisted of Jess Spencer, Olivia Corfe, Millie Wileman and Naomi Szczur competing against Leicestershire and South of Scotland in our group. The first-placed team in each of the two groups would compete on the Monday for the top spot and a place at the national finals. Second-placed teams competing for 3rd/4th and third-placed teams competing for the 5th-6th position.
The toughest fixture for the team was the first day against local rivals Leicestershire, who we had previously beaten on the last day of 18u County Cup in February for promotion. This time it was Leicestershire who came out on top with a 5-1 win, notably, Jess Spencer and Millie Wileman won their doubles at number 1 pair against Talia and Tabitha Holmes in a fantastic match tie break. The other matches were lost in straight sets but every time Nottinghamshire players improved their performance in the second set, an emphasis set by captains Andy Higham and Zeferino Antonio.
Due to the format of the competition, we also played doubles versus the South of Scotland on the first day, winning both rubbers. The fixture looked like an easy 6-0 win on paper but the girls showed the ability to bounce back after losing to Leicestershire in the first match, to win both doubles, as well as the composure to win all 4 singles on the second day and avoid complacency. Their reward was a training session on doubles to sure up some of our volleys when being hit at and how communication works when an opponent lobs, followed by a trip to laser quest! For notes, Millie and Naomi beat Jess and Olivia.
We qualified to play for 3rd place versus Buckinghamshire on the final day. The match was an closely fought competition with the girls not only competing on the match court but also with weather conditions and the opponent’s strong support team. After the singles the score was 2-2, Jess and Millie ran away with their doubles at number 1 pair, and finished around the time Olivia and Naomi were a set and 5-2 down. The girls managed to come back to win the set 7-6 but narrowly missed out in the match tie break. The match would be decided by one ten point tie break with the final results 3-3 after all matches.
I am proud to say that the girls managed to focus on tactics and run out eventual 10-8 winners in the final match tie-break, by committing to the tactics discussed and going for our shots!
All players had a fantastic learning attitude and improved over their matches.
Andy and Zef
Full details of both group’s results are available on the following link:
http://lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=D0ADCA2D-F54F-414F-987A-4BD0557C2BE9