On Saturday 15th May the under 9 girls took part in a county battle against Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
As the girls started to arrive all I could see were great big smiles, they were all super excited to be here together as a team. While we were waiting for the boys to finished the girls got changed into their blue Bucks county t-shirts and we started to discuss team goals that the girls were going to try and complete throughout the day.
These goals were:
Never give up
Make sure if you are not playing, you are supporting
Enjoy being part of a team
Up first we played Gloucestershire. Iyla and Isabella were up first, they played amazing competitive tennis which put us ahead straight away with a 2-0 lead over Gloucestershire. Next up, Ella and Madeleine. We had a great support crowd behind the girls, they both stayed very solid and made it tough for their opponents to hit the ball past them. The girls kept positive and kept to their game plans. Ella and Madeleine secured the overall win for Bucks 4-0.
Second up, were Hertfordshire. We knew going into this would be our toughest challenge. They had some very strong players and our goal was to chase every ball down and stay committed to each shot. Astrid battled through and stayed mentally focused, she got us off to a good winning her match in a tie break. Alongside Astrid, Iyla had a tough match. However, even though she didn’t win she kept an extremely cool head and was able to take lots of positives from it. The battle continued for our 1 and 2 players. Each of them starting well but Ella just lost out 4-1 with Madeleine able to stay consistent winning 4-0. This meant going into doubles we were 2-2.
Lastly, we had Oxfordshire. All of our girls were able to reset for this fixture. Isabella starting strongly and used the court well keeping her opponent on the run, she won 4-1. Iyla also battled hard after a close encounter at the start of the match before staying solid and hurting her opponent with depth she won 4-2. Ella had a great battle with the number 2 from Oxfordshire who had an aggressive short forehand. Keeping the ball deep, playing smarter tennis meant she was able to us this going into the tie break and win 7-1. Madeleine was up last for the singles and used her opponent’s power against her. She stayed calm even on the run and made her opponent play more and more balls. She won 4-0.
Unfortunately, due to the timing we were unable to play all of our doubles matches. As we had won two tie’s 4-0, 4-0 against Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire it was all to play for in the doubles against Hertfordshire. Both doubles came down to the wire and both teams were playing some lovely tennis. Alongside this they were communication and moving better as a team however Hertfordshire just clinched both matches. One of them in a tie breaker 7-1 and the other match 4-2.
Overall, even though we came 2nd in the group our girls showed great team work and resilience throughout the day. They supported one another and definitely created a brilliant atmosphere to each match.
Team: Madeleine B, Ella I, Isabella B, Iyla G, Astrid A