It was the final round of the home and away season for most of Tennis Geelong’s Associations Junior League last weekend.
This is the first year that players from Geelong have played under the Tennis Geelong banner in the age based event that runs for nine weeks on Sunday mornings from August to November.
The most exciting match of the day was in Boys 14A, where Aces drew with Bayside Moorabbin Blue. The first singles was a marathon with George Wills coming back from 1-5 in the first set to take it 7-5, before dropping the second 6-3.
The match tiebreak was close, but with a couple of unlucky points Wills succumbed 13-11. Tano-Li Quach and Isaac Brian fought hard in their singles but went down 6-2,6-3 and 7-5, 6-4, while Malachi Hedt took the teams only singles rubber 6-4, 6-0.
The team rallied in the doubles and levelled the match with Wills and Quach winning the first doubles 8-5, while Hedt and Brian sealed the draw winning 8-6.
Boys 16C also had a close one, at three rubbers all, but ahead six sets to four and five games. Gus Maibaum and Ben Weber set the team up winning the first two singles 6-2, 6-0 and 6-0, 6-2 and Daniel Mills narrowly missing out 7-5, 4-6, 5-10. Maibaum and Weber teamed up to take the first doubles 8-4 guaranteeing the win.
The girls have not had the best season with 16B struggling to field a team each week, and 12B being competitive, but without a win.
Girls 14B finished third in their group, going down to second placed Bayside Moorabbin four rubbers to two.
Chloe Bowyer won a tight match in her singles to register the team’s first win 6-2, 3-6, 10-6, then followed up with Hanna Schoenmaekers to take the second doubles 8-4.
Boys 12D played what could be a grand final preview when they travelled to Mornington to take on Peninsula. It was an ultra close match with Xavier Willoughby going down in a match
tie break, Zane Ryan going down 5-7, 6-7 while Aki Bhat and Brian Gong got over the line 6-3, 6-4 and 7-5, 6-4.
Unfortunately Peninsula proved too strong in the doubles, winning 8-5 and 8-2, giving it a 4-2 win. If the team can secure a good win this week over bottom of the ladder Eastern Region B, it will be able to draw on its knowledge from this week.
Boys 14C will be licking their wounds after going down one rubber to five against ladder leaders Western Region. With this week’s match against third place Peninsula, the team will be looking to regroup and do well to maintain second place and give it a chance at a rematch against Western Region.
Mixed 10A enjoyed some good tennis against North Eastern JTA this week with a 5-1 win.
The win leaves the team in second with a good chance in next week’s grand final against Bayside-Moorabbin.
The teams have played twice with a win to each team, so Lachlan Rae, Lane Studer, Flynn Stewart, Evren Atasever and Samuel Weber will need to be on their game to topple the ladder leaders.
Boys 16B have had the best season of all the teams, sitting top of their grade with a clear advantage over Waverley and will stay there regardless of this week’s result. Next week will see the team face Waverley, which will need to play well to maintain its spot as Eastern Region is only one point behind. The team has been very consistent and is undefeated, along with Lachie Treharne who has won all seven of his singles matches.
