Eagle Tennis 3rd at NECC; Noyes Earns All-NECC Honors

Saturday brought mild temperatures and a slight threat of rain as the Eagles headed to Lakeland for the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the NECC tourney.  Fortunately, the THREAT of rain never turned into reality and the lady Eagles were able to finish 3rd with 30 points overall.  The 3rd place finish matches their position in the regular NECC season.

Regular Season NECC

1st - Fairfield 8-0

2nd - Angola 7-1

3rd - Fremont 5-3  (Defeated all teams below other than West Noble)

4th - Westview 5-3

5th - Central Noble 4-4

6th - West Noble 4-4

7th - Prairie Heights 2-6

8th - Lakeland 1-7

9th - Churubusco 0-8

For the Eagles, the best finish of the day came from senior #1S Rebecca Noyes.  By defeating Brooke Moser (WN) in the 3rd place match, Rebecca earned ALL-NECC honors for the 2nd staight year.  In 2011, Noyes won the championship at #3 singles to make the ALL-NECC team.  Rebecca now has 30 varsity wins in her high school career, which is 5th on the list for the school record of MOST WINS IN A CAREER...behind Serena Frey (2004-2007 with 48), Julie Bouwman (2005-2008 with 44), Renee Frantz (2008-2010 with 35), and Caitlynn Smith (2009-2011 with 35).  Congratulations BECKERS!!!

At #2 singles, Ashton Taner filled in for injured teammate Lexi Skeens.  Ashton had strong showings in all of her matches and fought her way to a 2-1 record and a 5th place finish.  Truly a great weekend of tennis for a the "seeeensitive" sophomore who was thrown into the mix last minute.  Great job ASHIE!

Morgan Conti also had a great weekend as she went into the tournament in a 3-way tie with Wn and CN at 5-3 in the NECC regular season.  After outlasting WN Rachel Strouse in 3 grueling sets Friday night, Morgan went on to defeat CN in the 3rd place match to finish 2-1 and finish 2 places higher than she was officially seeded.  Awesome job MORGAN OF CORTI!!!

At #1 doubles, Saige Driver and Kasey Renfrew came into the tourney seeded 6th overall and had to take on a solid Angola team in the first round.  Although the Saige/Kasey combo lost that match, they played some of their best tennis of the season as even the Central Noble coach mentioned how well they performed.  In their 2nd round match, they defeated Lakeland 8-3 and then battled through many forced and a few unforced errors in their 5th place match, before falling to PH 8-3.  Saige and Kasey improved their communication, court positioning, and lobs throughout the weekend to finish 6th...exactly where they were seeded to begin the tourney.  Coach Byler was pleased to see the improvement. Keep it up DRIVING MISS KASEY :)

Last but definitely not least, the #2 doubles sophomore tandem of Itzel Sanchez and Anna Thompson fought off a tough challenger in the 1st round as they defeated Lakeland 6-0, 4-6, 6-0.  Truly one of the strangest scores Coach Byler has seen in his coaching career.  Maybe call it a 6-0 win in which the Eagles won 16 games :)  Anna and Itzel went on to lose to the eventual conference champion Fairfield team and then lost in a 3-set struggle against a much improved Central Noble team to finish 4th.  Way to communicate on the court girls...ANNAZEL SANPSON!!!

CONGRATS ON A GREAT WEEKEND OVERALL AND AN AWESOME 3rd PLACE FINISH LADIES!!!

GET READY FOR SECTIONALS!!!