Night tennis pushes on

Section 1 Highton and Drysdale-Clifton Springs 2: Kylie Moss, Nerida Povey, Kirsty Rixon, Michelle Dawson, Kerrie Fatone, Sophie Harris, Rachle Shanks and Nicole Nicholls. (supplied)

The challenging conditions continued this week in the Women’s Night Pilot, with rain threatening and the wind blowing, but the teams powered on to finish their matches.

Section 1 played their final matches of the trial, and the results were a tale of two halves.

The first match saw first and second go head to head and Acing Gracefully showed they were the team of the season.

Despite long rallies and many deuce games, Platypi could only manage eight games for the night, while the Aces took a four sets to love win.

The second match was a much closer affair, with Highton 1 getting over the line against Drysdale/Clifton Springs three sets to one but by only four games.

Michelle Dawson and Kerrie Fatone handled the conditions well taking the first set for Highton 8-5. Highton took a two-set lead winning the second, but with a much tighter outcome with Nerida Povey and Kirsty Rixon taking a tie-breaker against Rachel Shanks and Sophie Harris.

Shanks continued her good form in the third set with Nicole Nicholls winning the set for Drysdale/Clifton Springs 8-3, while Rixon and Fatone sealed the win for Highton 1 taking the fourth set 8-3.

Two matches were also played in Section 2, again with two very different results.

Tennis Tragics took on Western Warriors from Western Heights Uniting in a battle of first and second.

The first two sets were both close but the Tragics’ Katie Hayes and Erin McConnell took the first 8-5 and Michelle Fox and Kirsty McCallum the second 8-6. From there the Tragics put their foot down and took the remaining two sets 8-0, 8-2 to give them a clean sweep for the night.

The final match of the night was the closest with Wallabies playing Smash Hits at Highton.

Katie Nalesnyik and Ann-Marie McCaskill started the match well for the Hits winning the first set 8-4, but the Wallabies countered with Breanna Hulands and Bec McNally taking the second 8-5.

Nalesnyik teamed with Clarie Mullen in the third set to put the Hits ahead winning 8-2, while McNally partnered Grace Wrigley to take the final set 8-3, leaving the teams tied at two sets all, but Smash Hits with a two-game advantage.