Week 6 saw the accumulation of a season of success for the Lancaster University Women’s Tennis Team, with their final match fixture being played against Manchester University 2nd’s. Although not a league decider the pressure was on for the girls to finish the league undefeated and on an impressive 28 BUCS points. With Storm Doris right around the corner, it was looking uncertain whether the match would actually be played, but luckliy the weather was on Lancaster’s side and the home fixture went ahead.
Having not lost a doubles match all season number 1 pair Costi and Cardy took to the court to try and round off an undefeated year. The Feisty Italian and the Grimsby Girl played some tremendous tennis with a multitude of unreturnable groundstroke winners and volleys, leading to a convincing first win 6-2 6-1. Our second doubles pairing Danielle McNally and Jo Hotham seemed to be mirroring Costi and Cardy’s winning attitude, defeating the Manchester pairing 6-0 6-4, with Hotham producing some sensational Djokovic style down the line winners to prevail victorious. Just an hour or so into the fixture and Lancaster were already leading 4-0 needing just two more singles victories for the dream undefeated league win.
The line up for singles saw Chiara Costi playing at 1, Jemma Cardy at 2, Jo Hotham at 3 and sister of Danielle, Rachael McNally playing at seed number 4. With slightly windy conditions, the Lancaster side utilised the home court fixture to play a plethora of drop shots and out wide winners. Costi and Cardy breezed through their singles fixtures, both only conceding three games (6-2, 6-1 and 6-3, 6-0). Hotham faced a Sharapova look alike at number 3, and took the first set 6-3. After a slightly tense second set, Hotham managed to hold her nerve and bring in a fifth win for the Lancaster girls. After McNally’s emphatic wins against previous opponents Keele and Chester, she was faced with a rather tricky left handed opponent (those of you who play the game will know how frustrating this can be!) and unfortunately could not pull out a victory on this occasion. But McNally’s moral was still high as she knew we had just won our last BUCS match with a final score of 10-2, meaning we had reached 28 points and were to be crowned Northern 2A League Champions.
As Captain I could not have asked for a more responsive and committed team this year. Plagued with a myriad of injuries I thought this season would be a frustrating one, but winning the league surrounded by a group of 7 of the most amazing girls has made my final year on the team one to remember. President Cardy summed up her final year on the team by saying “after three years being the bridesmaids our team finally gets to be the bride, now lets hit sugar”. On the back of this victory our club is now turning our focus to Roses at York and are hoping to have similar successes!
