Last Road Trip of the Year.....

Hello everyone! This is sophomore Christina Lee reporting to the UNCW Women’s Tennis Blog, woohoo!! This past weekend the Lady Netter’s had a tough battle at the CAA conference tournament held in Norfolk, VA. Thursday morning we packed up the van and headed off on our four hour trip with Jimmy John subs that were graciously picked up by Coach Ware. The van that we received was a little ancient, but we worked it out with the help of Chelsea Kahle’s superb packing skills. Oh, I almost forgot to throw in…HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARGERY!! It just so happened to be our wonderful trainer’s, Margery Ellis’s, birthday, and Barb surprised her with some cupcakes that we all got to share. The van ride conversations consisted of Chelsea Kahle’s thirty year plan to become a surgeon and freshman Christina Riley claiming that she would buzz her hair off if we win the tournament (just kidding of course!).
We arrived in Norfolk with just enough time to shower and dress up for the annual CAA Awards Banquet. Everyone cleaned up very nicely and this year John Ware even remembered to bring dress pants for the event, go Ware! The food was so good and our team was racking up multiple plates each from the buffet table. Every year we enjoy observing the creative clothing choices at the banquet, like the rainbow patterned pants that one player was sporting. After eating, the Seahawks racked up the awards with six of our men’s players being recognized in the CAA all-conference men’s team along with Kayla Schwenk, Lindsay Leblang and myself being named as CAA All-Conference women’s players.
Friday morning the Lady Netter’s woke up early to support our Seahawk men’s team as they played James Madison. With the help of Casey Dashiell, who is from Norfolk, we arrived to the match and watched our men win the doubles point. Next, we headed off to get in a good warm up in before our first match against Old Dominion University. During our warm up Coach thought it would be a good idea to find us some coconut water that we could drink before our match because it contains an insane amount of electrolytes and would help us stay hydrated. Like anyone would do, she put GNC into her navigation system and drove to the closest one. As she was about to pay, the cashier asked for her military id. After informing the man that she was not part of the military, two huge military guys walked up on either side of her and questioned her. She was later escorted off the premises, and we all had a good laugh and joked that coach got arrested buying coconut milk.
Our next stop was good ol’ faithful Panera Bread. I’m sure no one on our team will ever eat there once they graduate just because of the amount of times we’ve eaten it on the road, haha. One interesting lunch conversation that stuck to me was John talking about his third grade love named Gladis. One day at recess, Gladis told Ware that if he kissed her, she’d give him a candy bar, and it was fate from there.
When we arrived to Old Dominion, we met up with some of our cheerleaders, aka Mrs. Dashiell, Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Lee, and Mr. Dashiell. The matches were behind schedule so while we were waiting, everyone heated and stretched, and even got in some much needed massages from Margery. She rubbed my arm and it felt sooo good. During this time we were all supposed to drink one of the coconut waters, which became a bit of a dilemma. Although champs like our upper classman were able to chug them down, Casey, Riley and I had a bit of trouble. You see, plain coconut water is not the most delicious thing to put in your mouth, so it took us a little time and even some mixing with Gatorade to do the trick.
Soon enough, it was time for the Seahawks to take the courts. Everyone was so pumped and energetic that it was hard not to be intense. Kahle and Collins with an 8-5 win at three doubles were the first off the courts. After an exciting battle at the second spot, Leblang and I clenched the doubles point with a 9-7 win.
Next up was singles, after three tough losses for the Seahawks at the 1, 2 and 3 spot the match was moved inside because it got dark. The three matches inside were with Dashiell at 6, Kahle and 5, and Leblang at 4. After a nerve wrecking second set tie-breaker, Dash pulled it out with a 6-4, 7-6 (6) win making the overall score 2-3. At this point the atmosphere was so intense! Everyone was yelling and trying to support our Seahawks who were still battling it out on the court. Unfortunately, some Old Dominion fans had very poor sportsmanship and even had the nerve to take a flash picture of Leblang as she was serving, and our fans let them know how we felt. Even through the distractions, Leblang battled like a champ after being on the court for 3+ hours, but unfortunately came up short in the end, ending the match right as Kahle was serving on match point on her court. Everyone left everything out on the court, and ODU barely got by us with a few points that went their way. Every year we get closer and closer to beating this team, and next year the Seahawks will the name ontop!
It was now around 10:00, and we all regrouped at the Dash’s house to have a delicious and much needed meal. As usual Mrs. Dashiell went above and beyond with the spread of food that was waiting for us at her house. Mrs. Collins also surprised us even more with the different selections of deserts that she made for us. Thank you mama’s!!
The next morning we headed back to Wilmington, and everyone was obsessed with a Bubble Wrap game on Ware’s iPhone. Basically the point is to pop as many bubbles on the screen as you can in thirty seconds. With us being the competitive people that we are, let’s just say the bubble popping got pretty intense. Also, Christina Riley and I sit in the back of the van, and we concluded that the suspension system in that van was non-existent because our heads hit the ceilings a couple of times. Through everything, everyone had a great time and we’re all ready for our Women’s Tennis Banquet being held on May 1st! Let’s Go Hawks!!!

Back on Home Soil.....and Senior Day!!!

Welcome back! I am junior Chelsea Kahle and I am excited to share with you the happenings of the past week and a half. The Lady Netters were more than ready to get back to playing on UNCW turf after the long few days on the road. The week started off with a tough loss against Binghamton. We lost at number one and three doubles, but Christina Lee and Lindsay Leblang played an amazing match, pulling out the lone doubles win in a tiebreaker. The duo also earned the honor of CAA doubles team of the week! We picked up three wins in singles at number 1, 4, and 5. Dash fought hard at number six but her opponent was just “SSSSOOOOO GOOOOOD” and felt that she needed to remind everyone within three miles of that fact. You’ll get her next time Dash!

With the loss fresh in our minds, we got back to work with a renewed vengeance for our next opponents, Coastal Carolina. Coastal is always a tough team and we usually have tight, marathon matches with them. This year was no exception. Kayla and Riley fought hard at number one doubles but lost 8-4. Christina and Lindsay once again crushed their opponents at the number two spot. As usual, Hartley and I were the final doubles match on. With the amazing superman-like poaching of Hartley, we saved five match points and pushed the match into a tiebreaker that we won 7-4 to clinch the double point. Singles was fought tough, but it wasn’t enough to pull out the match. Lindsay and Christina Lee picked up the lone singles victories at positions four and one, respectively. Kayla battled like a champ through her three set match even fighting through muscle cramps in the third set. We were all proud of the fight she put up to try to save the match. The 4-3 loss put our record at 13-7.

The final two home matches of the season were against North Carolina Central University and Mount Olive University. A few days prior to this match Coach explained that at our fall tournament, NCCU’s Head Coach gave Coach a box of Fruit Loops because he said that they reminded him of her when he saw them at breakfast earlier that day. Coach took that as a compliment (possibly to her colorful personality). Three days after Coach had told us this story, Christina Lee, while standing on court, watching Kayla and Casey finish at number one doubles, looked over at Coach, and as seriously as one can possibly be, asked “So Coach, what did you do with those Fruit Loops?” Oh Christina, our lives would be so boring without you! No sooner did we recover from that comment, when Coach looked across the court to find Mr. Dashiell sporting an ODU Tennis sweatshirt! We all gave him the evil eye and pointed in disgust as his attire. When he realized the problem, he tore the sweatshirt off, threw it on the ground and stopped on it like it was a deadly insect, before finding a perfect little corner in the trash can for it to lie. Casey and Kayla, who were still on court and had no idea what was going on, were sure that he had been attacked by something terrible. The Netters came out strong against NCCU with a 7-0 victory, leading up to Saturday’s Senior Day match against Mount Olive.

Senior Day was bitter sweet for everyone. Kayla Schwenk, Hartley Collins, and Lauren Fuennning were honored during introductions with tearful hugs, flowers, signed pictures, and a bag of their favorite goodies. The seniors stepped out to play their final match on the UNCW courts with the support of fans, family, and the rest of the team. The Seahawks came out with another 7-0 victory, pushing the record to 15-7.

The Lady Netters depart Thursday for Virginia to compete in the CAA conference tournament, with a first round match against ODU. We will be ready to take them down this time! Here We Go Hawks!!