Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Cheyenne Knueppel connects on a forehand in a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Maria Parolini on Tuesday.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Shawano Community High School senior Colleen McFarlane backhands a volley at the net in a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Green Bay East. The Hawks swept the Red Devils at home on Tuesday, 7-0.
Shawano Community High School junior Sydney Steinbach was pushed all the way to the end of her match Tuesday against Green Bay East’s Kee Xiong.
Steinbach, holding a 5-2 lead in the second set, lost back-to-back games, and then while having a triple match point, was forced into playing a deuce before taking the match 6-2, 6-4 as the Hawks swept the Red Devils at home, 7-0.
“She really stepped up her game and played a great No. 1 singles match,” Shawano head coach Matt Zoll said. “The match she put together was a total match and had a little bit of adversity and had to fight back, and it was well fought back by her.”
Steinbach and Xiong had some long rallies, and Steinbach was working hard early to hit her spots on the court.
“I was trying to play angles on her. I’ve been working a lot on top spin,” Steinbach said. “I was just trying to get her to move and tire her out early on.”
With Steinbach seemingly coasting through the second set, Xiong made her comeback, holding her serve before breaking Steinbach’s to get back within a game at 5-4.
Steinbach responded right away with a break of her own to seal the match.
“I was pretty nervous. I was like, ‘I do not want to go into a third set or a tiebreak,’” Steinbach said. “So I knew I had to break down and get all the balls back consistently.”
Shawano’s No. 3 doubles team of Gabrielle Tuma and Addie Shuler dropped its first set before bouncing back with dominant victories in both the second and third sets for the 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win.
“They were hitting lobs to the front court player, and she’s a tall player playing at the net, and you’re hitting easy shots to her, she’s going to finish them,” Zoll said of what went wrong in the first set.
After last week’s match against Fox Valley Lutheran got postponed twice and Saturday’s tournament in Kaukauna got canceled because of the weather, Zoll put the girls through an intrasquad match in practice on Monday to get them prepared for East.
“We had a great practice yesterday,” Zoll said. “One thing I told the girls I’ve been working toward this year is converting the skill into game time.”
And that’s exactly what the Hawks did.
Shawano will travel to New London on Tuesday and the rescheduled match against Fox Valley Lutheran awaits on Sept. 22.
“The girls, they’re going to need confidence going into that,” Steinbach said of facing the Foxes. “Everyone knows they are a good team.”
The regular season concludes on Sept. 24 at the Bay Conference tournament.
Shawano 7, Green Bay East 0
Singles: Sydney Steinbach (S) def. Kee Xiong (GBE) 6-2, 6-4; Cheyenne Knueppel (S) def. Maria Parolini (GBE) 6-0, 6-0; Kaliegh Zoll (S) def. Deyssi Pino (GBE) 6-1, 6-1; Lydia Williams (S) def. Jessica Martin (GBE) 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles: Julia Haarth/Dakota Hass (S) def. Sarai Haese/Abigail Swisher (GBE) 6-3, 6-2; Lexi Wilber/Colleen McFarlane (S) def. Melissa Bunker/Cindy Xiong (GBE), 6-0, 6-3; Gabrielle Tuma/Addie Shuler (S) def. Taylor Gillis/Alexis Watts (GBE), 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.