It's fall y'all, and you know what that means! Fall sports are wrapping up.
As I'm sure all of you are aware, many fall sports could not take place this year due to Covid-19. Thankfully, tennis wasn't one of them.
My team and I have been able to compete during our fall season (with some adjustments
of course) and make some noise at our final competitions.
Last week's challenge: Conference.
Throughout the season, we played each team in our conference tournament individually. We won each dual meet without giving up more than 3 matches each time. It wasn’t our first year going through our conference matches undefeated, but it was the most matches we had won in a year. It was a good way to head into the weekend tournament.
Each team is allowed six players in the tournament as a whole. Those six players make up #1 singles, #2 singles, #1 doubles, and #2 doubles. Heading into the tournament undefeated in conference, all four of our entries were seeded first in their respective brackets. But this was just the starting point, and each of us had to earn our spots at the end.
Number 1 doubles finished first. They dominated their first match, leaving no room for the other team to even hope for a comeback. Although their second match wasn't as easy, they still finished with a towering score over the other team. Their success was well deserved, and they got two shiny blue ribbons to prove it.
Number 2 doubles were done next. Their first match was a little closer than they had anticipated it to be, but they fought through to make it to the next round. In their final match, they let up just enough for the other team to get ahead at the beginning. But they fought back again to take the lead and pull out a win. Two more blue ribbons were awarded to them.
Number 2 singles earned her blue ribbon next. Cruising through both of her matches, any other place than first was never in the picture for her.
I was the last one to come off the court. My first match was against a girl I'd never played before. She had a very consistent play style. In other words, she got everything back. This was tough at first, but I was able to secure 12 games and continue on to the finals. By the time my final match went on, it was well over 80 degrees. While this may have been normal in August, it was unexpected in October, and both my opponent and I had trouble adjusting.
Our grueling match went on for over an hour. Although it got close at times, I was able to come off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 victory. I happily accepted the final blue ribbon and joined my team to collect the team trophy.
That was it! We had swept the conference tournament. A feat that even our coach couldn't remember ever happening in a girl's season before.
I really enjoyed reading this blog. Congratulations on the wins! I really liked reading about each match and I thought it was really cool that all the girls that played were involved and their matches were involved in the blog as well. My favorite part was the end when it explained the grueling hour it took for the last match win.
First of all, congratulations on your conference win! Your article provided a great storyline, with lots of detail about your match conditions, and the language used to describe the scoring is especially vivid and unique. Some of the language used might be unfamiliar to non-tennis players, such as being "seeded first in the bracket," but overall, most terms are self-explanatory. The tone of the article is also very friendly and personable, which is great for attracting readers. The structure of the post is also well-thought-out, as it introduces readers to the topic and follows them through the tournament, with the suspense building until it reaches the narration of your match. Great job!
I loved how descriptive this post was. If someone has never played tennis before, they can definitely gain a good understanding of the game from reading this. Even just the first sentence was very captivating and I immediately wanted to read more. I really liked how you included how all of the teams did individually. It shows a great deal of humbleness and respect towards your teammates. I also liked how you included the details of winning, and how it takes hard work and dedication. Great read!
I really enjoyed this post and how you included information about how you and your team worked together. Once I started reading about the matches, it really drew me in and made me want to continue reading and see what the outcome was. By including the other girls matches before your own built up anxiety wondering what your outcome would be. I was very impressed with the way you wrote this because by including all of the details you did, it was as if you could picture yourself sitting and watching the match in person. I also really enjoyed how you talked about playing against an opponent that you had never played against before because it created a new challenge…