Lawrence Park on to Citys

[attach]6522[/attach]On Oct. 16, the Lawrence Park Panthers girls’ tennis team broke the curse.

In the team’s 6–2 win over the Malvern Black Knights during South region finals, the team won on Court 1.

“We never, ever won Court 1 in any match in five years,” said Bridget Farrell, who, with partner Jesse Durand, took Court 1, and the three points it awarded, in three sets. “It was definitely a thing we wanted to do. It’s a good thing to go to Citys with.”

The Panthers won on three of four courts, but Malvern stayed competitive throughout. On the first two courts, where each school fielded their best two teams, each match was pushed to three sets.

On Court 1, Malvern’s Emma Leishman and Veronika Georgeff were able to hold serve, winning the set 6–4.

“The momentum was back and forth,” said Georgeff, a grade 12 student playing in her last team match. “The rest of the game, we just made too many errors throughout, and they put the ball in [play] the whole time.”

Durand and Farrell, in grades 11 and 12 respectively, had to work on their strategy throughout the contest. Strong ground strokes and staying the points helped the duo win the last two sets, 6–4, 6–4.

[attach]6523[/attach]“They were playing really well, they were on their game,” Durand said. “They weren’t missing in the first set, they just played exceptionally.”

Working well as a team has been something Panthers coach Lindsey Wong has wanted to instill from the season’s onset.

“A lot of them were singles players, and they had to learn to play doubles,” Wong said. “Working on volleying and positioning, because that’s most important in doubles — positioning on the ball instead of overall power.”

Wong’s work with the junior members of the team has shown results. The Panthers’ junior doubles players, placed at Courts 3 and 4 by Wong, also won their matches in straight sets, sealing the regional championships for Lawrence Park.

Malvern was one of their toughest opponents all season, as they gave the Panthers a challenge in a Sept. 25 contest. But, the Panthers overcame that challenge as well, with a 5–3 win.

“[The competition’s] been tough, but they’ve been playing well. And the nice thing is that they’ve gotten better in each match this season, the improvement has been constant,” Wong said.

City and OFSAA championships take place in 2013.