Tennis Geelong’s Saturday Senior Pennant finals went mostly according to ladder position.
Newcomb continued their dominating form against Grovedale in 1 Men with a 5-1 win.
The minor premiers kept Grovedale to just 16 games to progress to the grand final.
Highton had a clash of their Blue and Gold teams in the second-semi and the teams had had close encounters in all three of their meetings, so leading into the match it was hard to pick the winner.
On the day however, Luke McNabb, Jo Horvat, Rodger Labadan and Andrew Grills brought their A game with their own 5-1 win to progress to next week.
Section 2 Men did not produce any surprises with the end result, but maybe with the scoreline.
Western Heights Uniting and Bannockburn have dominated all season, and Saturday proved no exception with both teams posting 6-0 wins. Bannockburn will need to bring everything they can next week, as Uniting remain undefeated.
Grovedale (1 Mixed), Wandana Heights (3 Mixed) and St Leonards (4 Mixed) all recovered from losses in last week’s semis with comfortable 5-1 wins over Moolap White, Eastern Districts and Highton to set up rematches with Wandana Heights, Surfcoast Torquay and Bannockburn.
Lara White will also get another chance against Surfcoast Torquay in 2 Mixed, but they had a much tougher match against Ocean Grove. The teams were level after the initial mixed, Lara winning 7-5 and the Grove 6-4.
Robyn Cogan and Kristy Woodcock kept Lara in front, winning the women’s 6-2 while the men toughed it out in a tie-break with Ocean Grove’s Max and Jesse Ballagh taking the win. The reverse mixed kept the match close to the end with Lara winning the first 6-2 and Ocean Grove the last 6-1, not able to make up the game difference. Final result three sets all and Lara ahead by two games.
The Open sections were also almost to ladder position. Highton White accounted for Geelong Lawn 4-0 in 4 Open, helped by a missing player.
Ocean Grove White had a clean sweep against Moolap Black in 2 Open, although Moolap gave it a red hot go, with a doubles and a singles decided by a super tie-break and 7-5, 6-3 and 6-3, 7-5 losses in the others, so Ocean Grove had a long day out.
While the result was the same in 5 Open, Geelong Lawn posted a straight sets win ending Ocean Grove’s chances restricting them to just seven games for the day.
The second-semi in 5 Open was a lot closer than it appeared in the 3-1 final wash up. Grovedale’s Hanna Schoenmaekers and Riley Robertson did the job in the singles with straight sets wins, but two marathon doubles matches meant the match didn’t finish until after 5.30pm, 7-6, 6-4 to Wandana, and 6-7, 7-6, 10-6 to Grovedale.
The big upset for the day was minor premier Barwon Heads bowing out to Highton Blue in 1 Open.
Barwon Heads won their first encounter during home and away and Highton were ahead 2-1 in an interrupted match in Round 14, so it was always going to be a tough match. Rhys McNabb kicked off for Highton in the first singles winning 6-2, 6-2, but Toby Mitchell and Greg Luke put the Heads in front winning 6-1, 6-0 in the doubles.
Julius Busch put Highton ahead again winning his singles 6-1, 6-4 with the result coming down to the final doubles rubber. Barwon Heads were looking good taking a close first set 7-5, but McNabb and Brodie Spong fought back taking the second 6-4 forcing the rubber to a match deciding super tie-break. Again tight throughout, Highton eventual winners 10-8 to put them through to next week to meet Surfcoast Torquay.
