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Messiah Drops Another Tough Decision; Falls At Gettysburg 9-0
Posted: 9/26/2009
Box Score | More Women's Tennis news
Sophomore Sarah Thow helped senior Annie Gotchel to a strong effort in doubles play, but it wasn't enough at Gettysburg Saturday afternoon.

By Jansen Hein, GoMessiah.com reporter
Gettysburg, PA — It was another tough day for the Messiah women’s tennis team Saturday, as the Falcons took a tough 9-0 loss to at Gettysburg College for the team’s second straight defeat.  

Doubles play still seemed to plague Messiah (2-4) as the team was unable to take any of the three positions against Gettysburg (1-0). Senior Christie McGinley and junior Stacey Clark faced a tough junior-senior combination in Gettysburg’s Katie Taylor and Meghan Kelly at the top doubles slot, as the Bullets’ duo claimed an 8-0 decision. The Falcons’ second and third doubles teams put up great fights but fell by an 8-5 single break and 8-4 double break, respectively.  

Singles saw a bit more spark in the Falcons, but unfortunately it was a little too late. After a slow 0-6 first set, junior Steph Knepper put together a well-constructed counter-attack at the six spot only to fall just short with a 4-6 final second-set score. The same held true for senior Annie Gotchel at five singles for the Falcons, as Gotchel rebounded from her 1-6 first set loss only to be edged 4-6 in the second.  

Junior Katie Martstaller (third singles) and sophomore Sarah Thow (fourth singles) finished in much of the same fashion as well, losing 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1, 6-3, respectively.  

“Her agility proved to be too much,” commented Thow about her opponent Meghan Kelly.  “The depth of their team is very well spread all the way down the lineup.”  

The down-the-line shots and consistency of Gettysburg’s Kelly Eurich seemed to be the difference for junior Stacey Clark at the second singles flight as well, as she fell by a 6-0, 6-2 count.  

“Her serve and line shots took me by surprise in the first,” Clark said after the match. “I was able to get a bit of momentum in the second with some angled shots but definitely not enough. It was a tough day.”

Senior Christie McGinley put up the best singles numbers against Gettysburg, eventually falling 6-2, 6-4 to her opponent at the top singles position. The rallies in most of the points were longer than one would expect from a first singles competition. In the end, McGinley’s safe shots did not quite match some of the risky winners achieved by the Bullets’ Taylor.  

“My reaction time was a bit slow today and she took advantage at opportune moments with some well-placed winners,” noted McGinley.  

With some perspective on the match and slow start to the season, Coach Bush seemed focused on the upcoming Commonwealth Conference matches against Lycoming College and Alvernia University.  

“It is tough swallowing the recent losses,” she said, “but we are only down one conference match. We need to look to our losses as places to improve and attack our upcoming conference matches.”  

Messiah will next return to the courts Tuesday, as the team will host Lycoming College at 3:30 p.m. That contest begins a steady surge of league matches for the Falcons, as five of the team’s next six matches will come against conference foes.