By STEVE MORRISON
Niles Daily Star

The Brandywine and Buchanan girls’ tennis teams battled down to the final set Wednesday at Plym Park tennis courts in a contest that featured two evenly matched squads in the Lakeland Conference. The outcome of the match hinged on a tie-breaking third set showdown in doubles, between Buchanan’s number two-seeded doubles partners, Maddie Higgins and Dana Dowell, and their Bobcat counterparts, Katie Roberts and Nichole Coshow.

Roberts and Coshow pulled out a contested 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory to push the Bobcats past Buchanan 5-3 in the duel.

Buchanan won three of four matches in singles, while the Bobcats had triumphed in numbers one, two and four doubles, leading to the final match.

Buchanan’s number one singles seed, Kristine Gordon came back from an early 2-1 deficit in her first match to win 6-2 over Brittney Molica of the Bobcats. Gordon raised her record to 10-3 on the season with a 6-3 victory in set two.

Alyssa Roberts won her number two seed match for Brandywine with a rally to win set one 6-2 and a dominant 6-0 second set win over Buchanan’s Kirsten Smallwood.

Nash Hughes used some strong forehand and backhand smashes to win the third seed for Buchanan over Brandywine’s Jessica Blank. Rounding out the singles competition, Ashley Devereaux used solid control of the backcourt to win four singles for Buchanan over Taylor Mattiford of the Bobcats, 6-1 and 6-2.

Brandywine reversed the trend in doubles. Lauren Leonard won number one doubles 6-3 and 6-0. Leonard seemed to return shots just out of reach of their opponents, Jessi Hansen and Kyle Brademas. “Hitting them  where they ain’t,” Leonard’s forehand slam and subsequent corner return wrapped up the second set victory.

In third doubles, seniors Audrey Simmons and Carlee Rankel criss-crossed the court to stymie the Bucks’ duo of Ally Cornwell and Beth Van Alstine. Rankel’s and Simmons’s  teamwork were essential in holding off the charge of Cornwell and Van Alstine in the second set to victory 6-4 after winning the first set 6-2.

Bobcats Ashley DeJonge and Lena Miles easily outdistanced Buchanan’s Audrey Funk and Yavonne Atwell in four doubles, 6-0 and 6-1.

That left the results resting on the outcome between Buchanan’s Maddie Higgins and Dana Dowell and Brandwine’s pair of Katie Robbins and Nichole Coshow in  second doubles competition. Buchanan won the first set on steady work from Higgins and Dowell, 6-2. Robbins and Dowell began the second set with a 2-1 lead, expanding it to 4-3. Then Robbins and Coshow stormed back. Hard shots off of Robbins’ racket found their mark, more often than not, tying the match at 4 games each. Robbins and Coshow, both seniors, engineered a 6-4 win to force a third set finale.

The ladies from both teams showed determination, ending the third match of regulation at 6-6. The Bobcats pulled out the tiebreaker 7-5 to win the match and give Brandywine a 5-3 win for the day.

Buchanan coach Cuppy Mace was encouraged by her team’s effort.

“I think they played extremely well. It’s evenly matched. So if we win (number two doubles) we tie today. So, it’s been a good match,” she stated.

“What’s really going to make the difference is when we go into the Conference (finals). It’s early. We’ve played Bridgman. We’ve played Coloma already, and Edwardsburg. We’re all very evenly matched,” Mace  said. “It’s anybody’s game at the conference championship.”

Buchanan…3
Brandywine…5
Singles
1. Kristine Gordon (BU) d. Brittney Molica (BR), 6-2, 6-3; 2. Alyssa Robbins (BR) d. Kirstin Smallwood (BU), 6-2, 6-0; 3. Nash Hughes (BU) d. Jessica Blank (BR), 6-1, 6-1; 4. Ashley Devereaux (BU) d. Taylor Mattiford (BR), 6-1, 6-2

Doubles
1. Lauren Leonard-Kelsey Prestly (BR) d. Jessi Hansen-Kyle Brademas (BU), 6-3, 6-0; 2. Katie Robbins-Nichole Coshow d. Maddie Higgins-Dana Dowell, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5 (Tiebreaker); 3. Audrey Simmons-Carlee Rankel (BR) d. Ally Cornwell-Beth Van Alstine (BU), 6-2,6-4; 4. Ashley DeJonge-Lena Miles (BR) d. Audrey Funk/Yavonne Atwell (BU), 6-0, 6-1