Plymouth slips by Northridge on senior night
PLYMOUTH — Plymouth hosted Northridge Thursday night for another tough NLC Conference match, pulling out a tight 3-2 match in dramatic fashion on Senior Night.
In the first match to finish, Senior Tynley Gantz lost her match in straight sets while playing a more competitive second set. 1D was the second match to finish, with the Plymouth team of Seniors Marley Christy and Emma Jackson rallying from a 4-3 first-set deficit to take the first set 6-4 and carry that momentum to a straight-set win. Shortly after that, Plymouth’s Sophia Cantero took her match in straight sets, winning a tight first set and rolling in the second set to give the Pilgrims a 2-1 lead.
The Plymouth 2D team of Senior Natalie Sheely and Junior Marisa Langfeldt took the first set 6-2 and had a 4-3 lead in the second set, before the Northridge duo rallied to force a third set. At the time, Plymouth 3S player Mia Harley had taken a competitive first set and was in another tight second set. Mia then lost her second set as the Plymouth 2D team held a 4-3 third-set lead. The Northridge 2D team won the decisive third set 6-4 to tie up the team match 2-2 right before the 3S match began their third set.
After losing the first two games of the third set, Plymouth Junior Mia Hartley rallied to win the final six games of her match to take her final set 6-2. That final set (and the entire match) featured many long rallies and long, close games.
Thursday’s match was the sixth match Plymouth has played this season, in which the team score was knotted at 2-2, with one final deciding match on the court. Overall, six total Plymouth players have experienced those pressure situations and four Plymouth players have come through in the clutch to get victories. Overall, Plymouth is 3-3 in such matches this season, with walkoff wins over Goshen and Northridge in their last two matches.
After the match, Plymouth honored 6 Senior players and 1 Senior manager and their parents: Lilly Aquila, Marley Christy, Emma Jackson, Tynley Gantz, Natalie Sheely, Jayden Trump Haskins, and Alex Kizer.
“Extremely happy that we were able to pull out this win and stay in the running in the NLC this season,” said head coach Brad Haeck. “We didn’t play our best on every court tonight, but we were able to pull out the win on three courts. Overall, this is another great win for the team. Mia hasn’t been in that pressure situation before, so to see her step up her game and play so well in that final set was so fun to watch.”
Plymouth travels to LaPorte on Saturday to compete in the Slicer Invitational starting at 10 AM.
•PLYMOUTH 3, NORTHRIDGE 2
at Plymouth
Singles:
- Sage Granberg (N) beat Tynley Gantz 6-1, 6-3
- Sophia Cantero (P) beat Elaina Duthie 6-4, 6-1
- Mia Hartley (P) beat Anna Zmuda 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
Doubles: - Marley Christy-Emma Jackson (P) beat Catherine Miller-Ava Schrock 6-4, 6-3
- Stella Judd-Lidea Shell (N) beat Marisa Langfeldt-Natalie Sheely 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
JV
•NORTHRIDGE 8, PLYMOUTH 3
Singles: - Lydia Wray (P) beat Jade Snyder 6-1, 6-1
- Hayden Miller (N) beat Meredith Borden 4-1, 2-4, 10-5 3. Ava Kauffman (N) beat Allison Grobe 2-4, 4-0, 10-6
- Allison Grobe (P) beat Hannah Miller 4-3(4), 4-3(2)
- Brenna Kauffman (N) beat Abby Alfaro 4-1, 4-1
- Hailey Shultz (N) beat Sydney Manuwal 4-0, 4-1 Doubles:
- Addie Hundt-Jayden Trump Haskins (P) beat Gwen Mellott-Jheneya Lee 4-6, 6-4, 6-2
- Jovi Schmidt-Brooklyn Vasil (N) beat Lilly Aquila-Katelyn Golba 4-0, 4-1
- Alyssa Karpenko-Raksha Suresh (N) beat Lilly Aquila-Katelyn Golba 4-2, 4-1 4. Maya Nelson-Kendal Hall (N) beat Madison Golba-Caylee Troyer 4-0, 4-1
- Zoe Barth-Natalie Beaver (N) beat Madison Golba-Caylee Troyer 4-1, 4-1
