MARYVILLE – Neither blustery winds, Senior Day nor an early Saturday start time could derail this red-hot Maryville Scots tennis team.
In a best-of-7 Collegiate Conference of the South match, Maryville swept the two doubles points and then got a pair of straight-sets victories in singles to take a 4-3 victory over Huntingdon here Saturday. The win was Maryville's fifth in its last six matches.
It's a streak that began in Hilton Head and has carried through to a 3-1 record in the CCS with three matches remaining.
"Senior Day was a huge success for our ladies!" Scots head coach
Doug Corbett said. "We got one of our best wins yet. That was some of the best doubles I have seen us play all season. We played our brand of doubles, which is setting our partner up from the baseline and taking chances to get the ball at the net."
Saturday's match had it all. Senior Day festivities before the match saw the combined men's and women's team honoring seniors
Eliza Cheshire and
Abby Smither. And then play began with neither team fielding the full allotment of six players, which eliminated the No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles matches and put extra emphasis on the seven remaining duels.
Maryville started fast with Cheshire and
Abby Diggs controlling their No. 2 doubles match for an 8-3 victory, followed soon thereafter by
Katelyn Cook and
Elizabeth Shwaiko winning at No. 1 doubles by an 8-5 count.
Leading 2-0, the Scots went to work in singles. This despite increasingly high winds that reached over 30 miles per hour, with gusts better than 50 miles per hour. Not ideal tennis weather!
Smither came through at No. 5 singles with 6-4, 6-4 victory, and Shwaiko did the same at No. 3 singles by a 6-1, 6-1 result.
"
Eliza Cheshire played incredibly well in doubles," Corbett said. "The weather conditions got really difficult in singles, but our women stayed tough and powered through for a huge conference win. Great win for senior
Abby Smither in singles and we needed it!"
Huntingdon took the other three singles matches in close decisions, and Maryville had improved to 5-7 for the season. The Hawks are 3-6 overall and 1-1 in the CCS.
Maryville is back in action Friday at Centre and Saturday at Berea. The final home match of the spring is April 11 versus Johnson.
