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Comet girls net respect on tennis courts
(by Steve Novak - October 09, 2008)
Comet girls net respect on tennis courts
By STEVE NOVAK
During the off-season last year, Solon girls' tennis coach Linda Fox had all the reason in the world to feel confident. Her team had just finished the 2007 season with a 19-2 record, and her two top singles players were due to be back for another varsity season.
Then reality barged in. Fox's two top singles players -- Courtney Green and Shelby Lee -- both were forced to leave Ohio because of family commitments and parental employment moves.
Fox had to string together some new starting players for 2008. The fact that Solon won the championship in the Valley Division of the Northeast Ohio Conference shows that she did a pretty good job of things.
In addition to winning the NOC title, her team finished the season with a 17-4 season record. Six of her players were named to the all-division 2008 team, and another Comet gained NOC honorable-mention status.
Not a bad season at all, especially when you consider that Fox only had two players with varsity experience when the season began.
Fox said that junior Madi Thomas was the only returning player with a full year of varsity experience. Sophomore Taylor Gilbert played in some varsity matches in 2007, but missed several matches because of a hamstring injury.
Along with Thomas and Gilbert, Fox assembled a team of singles and doubles players that included four junior and three sophomores. Soon, after the 2008 season began, Fox noticed a pattern.
"In the beginning, I knew it was going to be a little bit tough. But at every court we played, we kept winning our doubles matches," she said. "And our singles players kept getting better."
As the season progressed, Solon's doubles teams remained undefeated. "Our doubles players kept us in the season," Fox said.
When it came time for the NOC championship rounds, past performance told Fox that the doubles rounds would most likely be Solon's strong suit. In the title match, the first doubles team of Madi Thomas and Zarah Schwartz finished in first place, defeating Cuyahoga Falls, 6-3, 6-7, 7-6.
At second doubles, Catherine Isroff and Andrea Marks finished first by beating Hudson, 7-5, 6-1.
At first singles, Solon came in third when Taylor Gilbert defeated her Mayfield opponent, 7-5, 6-4.
At second singles, Solon placed fourth with Victoria Chaitoff, who is a sophomore.
Solon won the title with 57 points, followed by runner-up Cuyahoga Falls and Mayfield.
Now that the season is over, Fox finds herself in a similar position as last year. She has a championship team, and none of her players are seniors. That means that the entire team should be back next season. But then there's the lesson she learned when two players had to move to Florida. Never say never. Fox isn't ready to say what kind of team she'll have in 2009.
"Who knows," she said.
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