Northwest boys and girls teams clinch state trip

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, April 11, 2017

The morning was a complete success for Northwest Whitfield High School’s tennis teams, the afternoon not so much. But at the end of the day, it was a good one for those in blue and orange. Northwest’s boys and girls teams each qualified for the state tournament due to their play Tuesday during the first day of the Region 6-4A tournament at Lakeshore Park in Dalton.

“I’m proud of both of them,” Northwest coach Steve Smith said. “Boys came back and fought. They had a tough way here, a tough path. They really fought hard. The girls, they’ve been solid for us all year. They continued that today.”

The Lady Bruins came into the tournament as the region’s No. 2 seed and opened the day blanking seventh-seeded Ridgeland 5-0, losing only five games combined during the course of the match. In singles play, Ella Spitler won 6-1, 6-0, Sruthi Gireeshkumar won 6-0, 6-0 and Isha Mittal won 6-0, 6-2. Haley Cox and Katelyn O’Ferrall won the top doubles match 6-2, 6-0 and the second doubles match was forfeited.

The Northwest boys came in seeded fifth and were matched up against No. 4 Pickens, a team that knocked off the Bruins in regular season play. But at the most important times, the Bruins rose up to clip Pickens 3-2, locking up their spot in the state tournament.

“Anytime you win it’s good, and when you beat a team that’s already beat you once it’s always a little bit better,” Smith said, “and getting to do it to go to state is the cherry on top.”

Leading the way were a pair of senior Bruins in the top two singles spots gutting out wins. Jordan King took the No. 1 match 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 while Andrew Bridges won at No. 2 7-5, 6-4.

“We all came in pretty serious,” King said. “We came in, warmed up, got our minds straight and went out there and played our best.”

“We really had to focus,” Bridges added. “Most of us didn’t play over the (spring) break so we had to practice a lot yesterday. We knew we could beat them, but they’re a good team, they’re consistent. We had to focus and wait for the opportunities to take good shots.”

Bridges noted that the team had a strong day of practice on Monday to shake off some rust that built up over the break.

“We came back yesterday and practiced,” he said. “We were all pretty rusty. But today we just focused in on our shots. Went slower and eased into the powerful shots.”

Locking up the win was a victory at No. 1 doubles as Levi Gentry and Kyle McCutcheon won 6-4, 6-3.

“They’ve created a really strong doubles team for us,” Smith said of Gentry and McCutcheon. “This year is their first year playing together. They work off each other and I’ve enjoyed seeing them progress.”

After the morning session was concluded, the girls came back to the court for their semifinal match against LaFayette. The Lady Bruins were strong at the top as Spitler and Gireeshkumar took the top two singles matches, but LaFayette scored victories across the rest of the courts for a 3-2 match win.

Spitler trailed LaFayette’s Madison Denny 5-4 in the first set before storming back to win the set and the match 7-5, 6-1.

“It was hot and I wanted to get off the court,” Spitler joked after playing her second match on perhaps the hottest day of the year. “I just had to run her because she wasn’t really running me. I just hit it back and forth to tire her out.”

Gireeshkumar echoed her teammate’s comments about the heat, but said she was able to push through it and scored a convincing 6-1, 6-1 win.

“I think I did pretty good,” she said. “I got really tired because it was really hot, but my strokes were pretty good.”

Smith said his singles stars make up both the present and future of the team.

“Ella is the cornerstone of our team right now,” he said. “She comes to play every day. She’s very talented. It’s really been enjoyable to watch her play throughout the years. Sruthi, her and Isha will be the cornerstones for the next three years. The future’s looking bright for us.”

LaFayette posted a convincing win in the No. 1 doubles match and Northwest had to win one of the final two matches to win the match and earn a home state match.

Mittal at No. 3 singles and Northwest’s No. 2 doubles team of Caroline Kenemer and Olivia Elrod each lost their first sets. Kenemer and Elrod battled back to win the second set against Skyler Oxford and Ida Scoggins before falling in the third. Mittal fell behind Rachel Wallin 5-2 in her second set. Mittal fought off match points to rally and force a tiebreaker, but she ended up coming up just short.

To close the day, the Northwest boys team faced a tall task and ended up falling to top-seeded Gilmer 5-0.

Both Bruins teams will be back at Lakeshore today to determine their seeds going into state. The Lady Bruins will play Pickens at 9:30 a.m. for third place. That will be followed by the Northwest boys at 11 a.m. against LaFayette.