Clutch win at third doubles pushes St. Charles E. past Batavia
Leave it to a veteran head coach for knowing when to provide helpful advice and when to withhold information.
With Tuesday’s Upstate Eight Conference River Division girls tennis dual match between Batavia and St. Charles East all knotted up at 3-3, Saints coach Sena Drawer looked on as her third doubles team of Emmy Russell and Jamie Youngberg rallied to force a third set against the Bulldogs’ Caroline Lantz and Julianne Robinson.
At that point, Drawer decided against telling the senior tandem about the significance of the match.
“I’ve learned before that unless a kid says, ‘I really want to know what’s going on,’ I don’t tell them,” said Drawer. “They’re kids. That kind of pressure is really too much for them.”
Russell and Youngberg fell behind 3-1 in the third set before winning the next 5 games, helping lift the Saints (7-1, 4-0) to a 4-3 victory over the Bulldogs (3-3, 1-2) in Batavia.
“Our coach always gives us the best pep talks,” Youngberg said of Drawer. “Her advice was to have positive thoughts, to keep doing what works and to not try anything too fancy.”
The Saints’ third doubles team broke serve 4 consecutive times in the third set, as Russell’s quick-hands return of a Robinson overhead smash helped change the momentum midway through.
“I was really pleased with the third doubles team because they’ve been sick all week,” said Drawer. “We’ve also got Homecoming as a distraction but they stayed focused through that match. The girls were able to rally and really get some good energy out there. That’s the hard thing about a third set — keeping the energy level up.”
Neither Youngberg nor Russell knew that their match would determine the overall outcome.
“I had no idea,” said Youngberg. “I’m glad I didn’t know, honestly.”
“We had no idea and I’m so glad I didn’t know,” added Russell. “It just would’ve been added stress.”
The Saints also received doubles victories from Alexa and Carly Huskisson (6-2, 6-3 at No. 2) and Katie Downing and Kelly Rinker (6-2, 6-4 at No. 4), as well as a win from junior Jaci Spoerl at second singles (6-2, 6-1).
“It was exactly how I thought we could win,” said Drawer. “I knew it would either be 3-4 or 4-3 and I was hoping for the 4-3 result.”
Nora McClure (6-2, 6-2) and Megan Garvin (6-2, 6-1) provided singles victories for the Bulldogs, while Jenny Mizikar and Amelia Cogan added a straight-set win (6-2, 6-0) at first doubles.
“We’ve started to play a little more conservatively,” said Cogan. “We’re not trying to put balls away at the beginning of points and it’s really benefiting us well.
“(Today) we stayed in the points and we let our opponents make the mistakes,” added Cogan.
On the heels of last week’s 4-3 loss to Geneva, another down-to-the-wire conference defeat left Bulldogs coach Brad Nelson feeling less than satisfied.
“I’m not happy with the way it turned out,” said Nelson. “I think we’re a better team than that. We lost to two good teams but the way we lost is what I don’t like. We lost two deciding matches where we had the lead late.”
The 3-time defending conference champions now face an uphill climb to extend the title streak to 4.
“We’ve got some work to do,” said Nelson. “The good thing is that we’re very much in it. We’re still alive. We’ve got to decide as a group how bad we want to win this thing again.”