Wednesday, Sep. 01, 2010

Apex tennis defeats Cary

The Apex girls tennis team (2-0, 2-0) defeated a young Cary squad Thursday by a final score of 6-3 for the Cougars' second win in as many days.

For Cary (2-2, 0-2), which opened conference play by falling 6-3 to Fuquay-Varina. It was the second 6-3 loss in a row.

But the final scores were all that Cary's first and second matches of the season had in common, according to Imps coach Janet Trotter.

"Today was immensely better," Trotter said. "This is a really tough Apex team. I'm very proud of my girls for fighting. Those singles matches were really well fought, so I'm really, really proud of them."

The Cougars defeated Lee County in a 9-0 romp Wednesday and had a chance to hold another opponent scoreless after sweeping through doubles action Thursday.

The Cougars' No. 1 duo of seniors, Shelby Bickel and Nikki Bowser, easily defeated Cary freshmen Jamie Rogers and Paulina Powierza, 8-1.

The other two doubles matches were slightly more competitive, as Apex's No. 2 pair of seniors, Laura Williams and Mackenzie Dolan, took down Cary's duo of freshman Hannah Jabusch and junior Caitlin Kim, 8-4.

For the sweep of doubles play, the Cougars' No. 3 tandem of sophomore Andi Johnson and senior Katie Manning took an 8-3 decision over Cary's Zoe Castellino, a senior, and junior Becky O'Brien.

Singles play was far more competitive thanks to strong play from a trio of Cary freshmen who each earned the first victories of their young careers in defeats of upperclassmen.

In the No. 1 match between Williams and Rogers, Cary's freshman took a 6-2, 6-1 victory. The Imps' Jabusch secured Cary's second point of the afternoon in a hotly contested battle in her No. 2 singles match against Apex's Bickel.

Jabusch lost the first set 6-2, but forced a tiebreaker with a 6-0 victory in the second set and won it, 15-13.

Powierza made it three victorious Imp freshmen when she defeated Apex's Dolan in the No. 4 match despite dropping the first set. Powierza recovered from a 6-4 first-set loss to take the second set, 6-1, then won 10-7 in the tiebreaker.

"We have a lot of young players," Trotter said. "They have really infused a lot of enthusiasm with the other girls. Every match I see improvement, improvement, improvement. We're all getting to know each other."

The Cougars hung on for the overall victory with a squeaker in the No. 6 matchup and decisive wins in the No's 3 and 5 singles matches. Bowser dropped Kim in the No. 3 match in two sets, 6-2, 6-0 and in the No. 5 match, Apex's Johnson won 6-0, 6-3 over Cary sophomore Anu Warrier.

The Cougars' Manning dropped her first set, 6-4, took the second set by a score of 6-4, and then took a 10-8 tiebreaker to earn the match victory.

"I was proud of how well we played today," Apex coach Ryan Phelps said.

"We won a lot of close matches and we were really fortunate to win 6-3 because we could have easily lost this match. Being in close matches like this is certainly going to help us down the road."

After starting its season undefeated in Tri-Nine play, Phelps and the Cougars have their sights set on a finish atop the conference standings and a long-anticipated return to state duals, which grants guaranteed bids to the top two teams in each conference.

"We definitely want to qualify for the state tournament," Phelps said. "We haven't made it since 2005, so we definitely want to do that."