The Pilot News - Pilgrims off to good start at NLC

After waiting through the first matches of the evening at Concord, the Pilgrims got off to a slow start but ultimately pulled through with wins in all but No. 3 singles to get off to a strong start in their NLC championship bid.
“I’m pretty happy overall,” said Plymouth girls tennis head coach Brad Haeck. “Four out of five’s not bad, especially as balanced as our conference is this year. We’ll take four out of five, I think... We still have a lot to play for on Saturday, especially with Northridge getting everybody through to the semifinals.”
Chelsea Benge — in her second match back following minor surgery last Tuesday — struggled at No. 3 singles, falling in two sets of 6-3 to Elkhart Memorial’s “Best” Rojannon. Benge, several pounds lighter since her departure, showed signs of rust and fatigue in her loss to Rojannon. She fell behind early and struggled just to keep up throughout the match.
“She was off a few matches,” said Haeck. “Kara (Gilley) filled in for her, so she’s a little bit rusty, maybe a little bit out of shape, in a little bit of pain. We’ll see what happens on Saturday; maybe we’ll sub Kara in. But we’ll see what happens with her on Saturday. Hopefully, she can play at least once.”
Plymouth’s No. 1 singles and No. 2 doubles players also fell behind early Thursday, but the Pilgrims came back from opening set losses at both positions for a pair of three-set victories.
Brittany Marquardt’s comeback was the more dramatic of the two, as she lost the opening set 6-2 and quickly fell behind Warsaw No. 1 Erika White 4-0 in the second set.
Marquardt collected herself and rallied back with four straight games, splitting sets with a 7-5 win in the second set and eventually claiming another 6-3 win in the final.
“We’ve had our fair share of three-set losses and especially losing that first set it makes it a lot more difficult,” said Haeck. “Brittany was way down and decided she didn’t want to lose today, so I’m very proud of her for how she finished the match.”
“I used my angles, mostly,” said Marquardt of her comeback. “I started hitting it to her backhand, and she started hitting it to my backhand. I mean, it was tough, but I’m glad I came out with a win.
“I didn’t want to lose in the first round, and I knew from when I played Warsaw that it was going to be a tough one. But I didn’t want to lose, and I didn’t. That was my goal.”
No. 2 Plymouth doubles partners Meagan Barron and Lindsay Renz kept their first set against Elkhart Memorial’s Kelly Emerson and Anissa Hakim close, although they ultimately dropped the tiebreaker 7-3 for a 7-6 Lady Chargers win. Renz and Barron regrouped quickly from the loss, however, and took lopsided 6-2, 6-1 wins in the remaining sets for another Plymouth NLC victory.
“It’s just confidence,” said Barron. “We weren’t going to lose the first round, and we hopefully aren’t going to lose at all... We knew that we didn’t play up to our ability the first set. So we knew we were really going to come back strong in the second and the third, I guess.”
Although Plymouth had already met the Chargers earlier this season in a dual meet at Elkhart Memorial, their No. 2 doubles lineup looked a little different Thursday, and Renz said that took some adjustment.
“In the regular season we played a girl from the JV that moved up to 2 doubles because one of the Elkhart Memorial girls was playing at 1 doubles because the 1 doubles girl was not there,” she said. “So we’ve never seen them and had to adjust to what they were playing. We got used to it, and we adjusted pretty well after the first set.”
The Pilgrims’ No. 1 doubles tandem of Kristen Holloway and Carly Plumlee also had a close call in their first set against Warsaw’s Erin Coppes and Lauren Sciana, but they pulled it out 7-5. Holloway and Plumlee made shorter work of their opponents in the second set, moving to a team-best 6-2 in the conference with a 6-1 win over Coppes and Sciana.
“We struggled a lot in the first set. We should have been more ready,” said Plumlee. “We realized that in the second set and then picked it up.”
Plymouth’s most dominant victory of the day came at No. 2 singles where Nicole Beguin beat NorthWood’s Katherine Kitson in straight sets of 6-1. Beguin, who had already met with and beaten Kitson convincingly in a dual meet at home last month, won in even more commanding fashion Thursday to give the Pilgrims their first win of the tournament.
“Playing her before I knew her strengths and weaknesses,” said Beguin. “I think that helped. Her serves weren’t as tough as some girls that I’ve played so I could step in and hit them early and give good returns.”
“She’s been having some pain so I think that might have been a factor,” she added. “She didn’t usually hit shots back, so it was to my advantage that I didn’t have to put the ball in play too often.”
“She played great,” Haeck said of Beguin. “She played a girl that she had beaten pretty bad before and beat her even worse today, and that’s what I like. To have that mindset to where — it’s usually tougher to beat someone a second time — she had that mindset that she wanted to play better than she did the last time. That was good; it kind of took a little stress away from us today knowing that she came out ready to play and took care of business for us.”
With round one of the NLC behind them, the Pilgrims will be in familiar territory Saturday when round two gets under way at Plymouth. They’re still in contention for a conference championship, but Northridge isn’t making things easy for the challengers.
“Our first goal is to win the tournament, do everything we can to win the tournament,” Haeck said. “Our second goal is to finish ahead of Concord, so we made a good step in the right direction towards the second one.”
• PLYMOUTH 4-1
At Elkhart Northern Lakes Conference Tournament
SINGLES: 1. Brittany Marquardt (Plymouth) beat Erika White (Warsaw) 2-6, 7-5, 6-3; 2. Nicole Beguin (Plymouth) beat Katherine Kitson (NorthWood) 6-1, 6-1; 3. “Best” Rojannon (Elkhart Memorial) beat Chelsea Benge 6-3, 6-3.
DOUBLES: 1. Kristin Holloway and Carly Plumlee (Plymouth) beat Erin Coppes and Lauren Sciana (Warsaw) 7-5, 6-1; 2. Meagan Barron and Lindsay Renz beat Kelly Emerson and Anissa Hakim (Elkhart Memorial) 6-7 (7-3), 6-2, 6-1.