FREMONT – Ask any card player and they’ll tell you what an advantage having an ace up your sleeve can be.
Gillian Gallagher
Lily Abdoo
Olivia Henry
Girls tennis coach Lisa Wolfe may not play cards but she does have an ace up her sleeve. Actually, she has three.
After a less-than-thrilling warm-up from a few of her prospective singles players Monday, Wolfe went to what she knew she could rely on: Her trump cards. She separated the No. 1 doubles team of Gillian Gallagher and Lily Abdoo and inserted them back into singles flights alongside No. 1 singles Olivia Henry.
The late lineup shift worked and Ross once again made a clean sweep of a foe, this time TRAC rival, Findlay, 5-0.
“I didn’t see what I wanted to out of a few players, so I went with the strong singles lineup,” Wolfe said. “The girls are going to get a lecture on they have to practice like they want to play. What I was seeing at practice before (Findlay) got here took them out of their TRAC spots.”
For TRAC matches, Wolfe has usually paired Gallagher and Abdoo at doubles so they can play for seeding in the TRAC tournament. But, given the pair entered the day with a combined record of 13-1 in singles play, Wolfe had no hesitation to break them up put them back into singles if that gave the Lady Giants the best chance to pick up the two points awarded for a league duel-match victory.
“Gilli, Lily and Olivia were warming up incredibly,” Wolfe said. “They knew I hadn’t made up my mind about which way we were going to go. Gilli and Lily wanted to play together but…I had to separate them to get the three points.”
Henry, at No. 1 singles, won 7-5, 6-3, upping her personal record to 9-1. Gallagher, a junior, cruised to an easy win, 6-0, 6-0, playing at No. 2 singles where she needed to get reacquainted with her surroundings.
“I haven’t been on that court since freshman year,” Gallagher said. “I was down there and I was like, ‘This is weird’ because I’d been playing first the last two years. It was definitely a change but, at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, we did what was best for the team, which was play our strong singles lineup.”
Like, Gallagher, Abdoo rolled to victory, 6-2, 6-2, staying unbeaten in singles play this year, 8-0.
While she entered the day expecting to play doubles, Abdoo took the news she and Gallagher were making the switch to singles in stride.
“I wanted to play double going into today, but I’m not mad I didn’t,” Abdoo said. “Doubles you know someone else is there to pick you up and help, but when you’re by yourself there is a lot more just on you.”
In doubles, Mallory Hutton and Berlin Swaisgood combined to take a three-set victory at No. 1 doubles, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3. Natalie Brown and Sophia Biggins won at No. 2 doubles, 6-2, 6-3.
The win keep Ross perfect in TRAC play, 4-0, and ups its overall record to 10-1. The Lady Giants are back on the court Tuesday at Clay.