The Lord Botetourt tennis teams will conclude a busy stretch when both the boys and girls play William Byrd on Friday. The boys are at Byrd and the girls will play the Terriers at Hollins University.
The boys dropped two matches against strong competition last week. Traditionally strong Blacksburg beat the Cavaliers, 8-1, at Hollins. Ethan Steryous won 8-2 at number one over Reed Marsden for LB’s point.
“Overall, the team performed well and clearly showed improvement since our last match against Blacksburg,” said LB coach Tim Howard. “Ethan played a very crafty match against Reed, frequently positioning himself wide on his serve and using a well-placed kick serve to Reed’s backhand.”
On Monday the LB boys traveled to Ridgeway for a match against Magna Vista and lost a close one, 5-4. Steryous, Davis Kidd and Nick Wright won singles matches and Steryous and Kidd won 8-0 at number one doubles.
“Tough loss for the team, but it was certainly a valuable learning opportunity,” said Howard. A few of our players are in the process of making adjustments to their swings and service motions, and today those changes didn’t quite come together on the court. That said, I believe this result will serve as strong motivation for them to stay focused in practice and continue working on consistency and making more balls in play.”
The girls also lost to Blacksburg, 8-1. Elaina Brown and Gwyneth Farrar held on for a close 8-6 pro-set win at second doubles.
“We also had great matches across the top six singles play, but failed to grab any points there,” said coach Dennis McCarthy.
The girls finished the week strong at home against Franklin County, dominating at every position and ultimately came away with all nine points for a 9-0 victory. LB only gave up one game across all match play.
