215 534 8771
..........................
PATRIOT LEAGUE’S WOMEN TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS UNDERWAY
Bethlehem, Pa. April, 20 2012
Newsteam for ybSportsonline
Lehigh University’s Tennis team opened conference tournament play against the league’s fourth seeded team, Bucknell University from Lewisburg Pennsylvania on Friday morning at their South Goodman Lewis Center Campus. The Lady Bison, which suffered a loss a week ago to Colgate, was down two players during that match which attributed to that loss according to their head coach. But during their match against the Mountain Hawks from Lehigh, the Bison quickly jumped out to a two point lead by winning the first four matches and prompting Lehigh to concede the match early. Bucknell, a complete team now, appears headed for a rematch with the Red Raiders from the University of Colgate if they can dispatch a sturdy Lafayette College team. If the Bison are able to get by Colgate, it would set them up for a chance to meet the number one seed, The Naval Academy
Photo; Russ Harris ybSportsonline
Bucknell's Elisabeth Morgan and Dumitrita Iepurus start things off early in doubles for the Bison against Lehigh University on Friday
PATRIOT LEAGUE’S WOMEN TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS UNDERWAY
Bethlehem, Pa. April 22, 2012 Championship Match
Army vs Navy
One team was seeded number one and sporting a 19 - 2 record while the other had a very respectable 19 – 6 record and was the tournament’s number two seed. The weather Channel forecasted rain for this Sunday…All day long. Three plus inches of it to be exact, and that meant the Patriot League’s Championship final would be played inside the confines of Lehigh University’s cozy Lewis Center. Two teams as evenly matched as you will find took center stage to battle for Patriot League supremacy, and boy was it work the wait. Army struck first blood when it took two out of the three opening match doubles face offs. This interrupted play for the final doubles match that was in progress and set up what many in attendance thought might be one of the best championship singles matches they had seen in years. The highlight match of the day was the one being played on court number three that featured the number two players from both teams squaring off. No one mentioned a word about it, but this match seemed to carry implications with it that indicated who the conference champion might be at it’s conclusion. Jamila Paul, Army’s diminutive baseliner would do battle with Navy’s quintessential power player, Emani Decquir from Sacramento, California for the all important crucial half point.
Standing all of five feet tall and weighing no more than a hundred pounds, Army’s Paul proved that it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, but more about the size of the fight contained within the dog as she weathered a ferocious attack from Decquir in the first set to turn things around, and eventually force a second and a third set where she prevailed by a score of 6 – 2. So forceful was Decquir with her ability to range deep ground strokes from one corner to the next that all Paul could do to keep from being blown off the court was to just hang on and try to extend each point for as long as she could in hopes that it would eventually begin to wear down her opponent. For a while it didn’t appear as if anything would derail Decquir and her lethal groundstroking genius, as time and time again she would creep into the court to catch many of her opponents weaker returns at the service line and put them away with full ground stroke swings without the ball ever hitting the ground. Hitting pinpoint precision returns against the much bigger Decquir, Paul appeared to be extending virtually no energy during her returns and exhibited textbook style weight transfer and ball placement in an effort to hold on until the later sets came.
As I watched the comeback unfold, two things crossed my mind. Number one were thoughts of former US Davis Cup Captain, and former tennis great, Tony Trabert, who played flawless tennis during his heyday, and his two star pupils, Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs. And two, how important conditioning was to the game of tennis. Harold Solomon and Eddie Dibbs helped anchor some of America’s best Davis Cup Tennis Teams and quite often they were always the smallest players on the court. Decquir, Navy's bombardier of a player, and with a powerhouse of a forehand to back it up went away from what was working for her, and in the end it is what proved to be her undoing. Her final shot was of her stepping around a back hand to deliver one of her patented inside out forehands, but unfortunately this time sailed the ball wide and deep into the doubles alley to give Paul the match. Paul, energetic to the end, jumped up in the air and gave a little fist pump along with a joyful yell because she knew that her match was one of the more pivotal one’s needed to help the Lady knights capture their ninth straight Patriot League Title. The lesson learned here for all of you younger players looking to develop your game is to stick with what you do best, and if your mechanics are solid, and your conditioning is tight, chances favor you to win your match when everything else begins to fall apart for your opponent.
* We apologise for the error in wrongfully stating Navy's Emani Decquir as Erin Snook during her championship match against Army's tough Jamila Paul during their Patriot League Women's Championship match last month.
