Radford girls dispatch Mathews to advance to state tennis final

Back to the Group A girls team tennis final goes Radford and with an economy of effort at that.

The Bobcats dominated Mathews 5-1 Friday morning at N-Door Tennis Club, rendering unnecessary most of the doubles competition.

Cypress Beech and Neha Desai of Radford had Amy Collins and Alyson Collins on the run and down 5-3 in the doubles portion of the match when Radford wrapped up the competition in singles.

Radford (17-1) will be able to use the energy saved when it goes to Saturday's 9 a.m. final at Radford University against George Mason, a 5-2 winner over defending champion Gate City in the other semifinal. The Bobcats are in the final for the first time since 2002, which is also when Radford won its fifth Group A girls tennis title to go with two won in AA.

Radford's only setback Friday came at No. 2 singles when Amy Collins stopped Desai 6-2, 6-0. Desai is one of four seniors, along with No. 1 Beech, third seed Morgan Miano, and No. 4 Hanna Krayer. The last chance for the veterans has made this season more special for them.

"We've made it to state twice in the past four years, our sophomore year and senior year," Desai said. "But this is the first time we're going to the finals."

East Rockingham beat Radford in the semifinals in 2011 and Gate City ousted the Bobcats from the semis last year. Both EastRock and the Blue Devils went on to win the crown.

The tone Friday was set for Radford at the top of the lineup with Beech and bottom with Samantha Brooks. Beech decked Alyson Collins 6-1, 6-3 and Brooks made short work of Carlyn Tillage 6-1, 6-0.

Miano, Krayer, and Leah Patterson also won their singles matches.

Radford's only team loss this year came to Graham during the regular season. The Bobcats avenged the defeat in the Region C final, which turned out to be a nerve-wracking affair that turned out to have multiple positive results.

"After going down 4-2 in singles, I have to tell you I wasn't feeling too good about it," Radford coach Ron Downs said. "Then they really dug down and sucked it up and won three-straight doubles matches. No question that helped us the next rounds. They saw what they did in doubles they should have been doing the whole match."

Against Mathews, the main challenge for the Bobcats was waking up their tennis games at the unfamiliar hour of 9 a.m.

"Once I got out on the court and had my teammates next to me it's a lot easier to get in the mode as opposed to when you're just playing a match by yourself," Beech said. "It's hard to get pumped up because you don't see your teammates next to you working just as hard as you are."

At N-Door Tennis Club, Roanoke

Singles

Cypress Beech (Radford) d. Alyson Collins 6-1, 6-3; Amy Collins (Mathews) d. Neha Desai 6-2, 6-0; Morgan Miano (Radford) d. Leanne Moughon 6-1, 6-4; Hanna Krayer (Radford) d. Mercedes Wells 6-4, 6-3; Leah Patterson (Radford) d. Kate van Emmerik 7-5, 6-1; Samantha Brooks (Radford) d. Carlyn Tillage 6-1, 6-0 Doubles Beach-Desai (Radford) v. Al. Collins-Am. Collins DNF.

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