WEST ISHPEMING----The Escanaba High School girls tennis team had a busy day on Tuesday in Marquette County, playing two matches back-to-back.
The Eskymos played to a 4-4 draw with the Marquette Sentinels, and lost a tough match to the Westwood Patriots, 5-3.
Escanaba Coach Chris Ogren was happy with his team's effort.
“It was a highly competitive day today against two of the best teams in UP tennis,” Ogren said. “Marquette is the defending GNC champions, and Westwood finished as runners up in the UP last year, so we knew that today would be a measuring stick type of day. I was overall very pleased with how the girls played today.”
Ogren says his team battled throughout both matches.
“There were competitive matches everywhere and the outcomes could have been very different had a few balls bounced slightly differently,” he said, pointing out that Varrah Veeser won her matches against both Marquette and Westwood at third singles.
“The opponent Varrah played from Marquette was Nora Skytta, who Varrah had lost to multiple times last year,” Ogren said. “This year, however, Varrah has stepped up her = game considerably and was able to win 6-4, 6-3. Then, in her second match of the day, Varrah played Emmi Carlson from Westwood. Their first set went to a tiebreak, and took so long that over half of the (other) matches were done with two sets by the time Varrah finished her first set.”
Veeser won the tiebreaker, 7-3, before Carlson won the second set. And the third set was itself a marathon, going into another tiebreaker. Veeser fell behind early in the tiebreak,
but battled back and eventually won, 10-7.
“Varrah showed a very well rounded game today, staying patient while also being willing to play the net,” Ogren said. “It was a great day for Varrah.”
Ogren was also happy to see the play of Anna Martin at first singles against Westrwood's Lyn Magnuson (after she outlasted Marquette's Stella Dehlin, 6-1, 6-3).
Martin fell behind Magnuson, 5-2, in the first set, before rallying to win in a tiebreaker, 7-4. Martin then pulled away to clinch the match in the second set, 6-2.
“This was the best tennis I’ve seen Anna play in her four years on the team,” Ogren said. “Her ability to hit topspin from the baseline as well as comfortably come to the net and win points with her volleys is a combination that I haven’t coached at Escanaba in my career. She is a tremendously well rounded player that also gets along well with all of her opponents.”
As the school year begins on Wednesday in Escanaba, the Eskymos will take a few days off from competition before hosting the Gladstone Braves next Tuesday afternoon (September 1) at 4:00.
All of the scores from Tuesday's matches are posted below.
