Cosmos rally, oust Raiders 4-3

Playing from behind lit a fire under Springfield during Friday’s Division II girls tennis quarterfinal in East Montpelier.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20130601/SPORTS02/706019874

Published June 1, 2013 in the Rutland Herald Cosmos rally, oust Raiders 4-3 By JAMES BIGGAM Staff Writer EAST MONTPELIER — Playing from behind lit a fire under Springfield during Friday’s Division II girls tennis quarterfinal. The fifth-seeded Cosmos dug themselves an early hole against No. 4 U-32 before clawing back with wins at No. 2 doubles and No. 4 singles. U-32’s Sarah Faber staved off two match points at No. 4 singles but Kendra Dana closed out a 6-0, 7-5 victory, allowing the Cosmos to wrap up a 4-3 team win. “Kendra is one of the scrappers on my team and she’s done very well this year,” Springfield coach Kim Lewis said. “She won five matches in a row during the season and now she’s won eight of 12. I think nerves kicked in that second set, especially with everyone else finished, but she came through like a trooper.” The Cosmos fell behind 1-0 within the first 40 minutes when U-32’s Signe Goddard shut out Lauren Warner, 6-0, 6-0, at No. 5 singles. One court over, U-32’s Sarah Wells and Emily George jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first set before Springfield’s Abba Garaffa and Lexie Bellows stole their thunder by winning the next five games. The Cosmos duo seized a 2-1 lead in the second set but then the Raiders rallied to secure a 6-2 victory. Wells and George squeaked ahead 4-3 in the third-set tiebreaker and then won the final six points of the match, giving U-32 a 2-0 lead. Meanwhile, Springfield’s Kylie Bellows was in cruise control during her No. 2 singles match against Phina Sances. A 14-shot rally ended with a deep return from Sances on match point, giving Bellows a 6-3, 6-2 victory. That shifted the attention toward the back-and-forth No. 1 singles action, where the first set entered a tie-breaker. Springfield’s Erin Chlebak upheld a disputed call with things tied at 4 and then finished off a 7-5 win in the tie-breaker when a return by U-32’s Claire Puleio sailed into the net. Pulieo earned an early break in the next set and then put the final touches on a 6-1 victory when Chlebak failed to track down a delicate drop shot. Coach Lewis proceeded to request a timeout for her player, who wrested up for five minutes while tape was applied to her right foot. Neither player pulled ahead by more than two points in the tie-breaker, with Puleio successfully attacking the net for hard-earned put-aways. Chlebak earned match point at 9-8 after ripping a winner off the back-side of the baseline, but an unforced error kept Pulieo in the hunt. Pulieo stormed the net again and ended a 13-shot rally with an overhead smash, giving her a 10-9 advantage. She completed the comeback when a ground stroke from Chlebak drifted wide, pushing U-32 in front 3-1. “What was left on the court, we had to win, so it was clutch,” Lewis said. “It couldn’t have been any closer.” Kiana Nelson provided a crucial boost for the Cosmos at No. 3 singles, capping a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Liz Gilbert just moments after Puleio had finished her match. That left Springfield with all of its chips on the table at No. 2 doubles and No. 4 singles. The doubles battle initially appeared to be the real difference-maker, especially because Dana hadn’t lost a single game in her first set. Cosmos teammates Madisyn Watson and Victoria Ruzzo also captured their first set, with a lunging retrieval by Ruzzo wrapping up a 6-4 victory. Watson and Ruzzo leapt out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, though U-32’s Ali Belliveau and Sasha Rubin answered by winning the next three games. A disagreement over the score led to a long delay with the Raiders trailing 5-3, but the Cosmos were unfazed. Watson ended things by crushing a cross-court winner on deuce point, nipping U-32’s comeback bid in the bud. “Ali and Sasha have been one of my most reliable teams all year, and credit to Springfield’s No. 2 doubles team: They played well and were just a little more aggressive at net and in the big points,” U-32 coach Paul Dayton said. With things all squared, Faber faced two match points while trailing 5-4 in the second set. A long return by Dana kept Faber’s hopes alive, and then she outlasted her opponent again at deuce point to even the set at 5-5. Dana stuck to her backhand and Faber relied primarily on her forehand during the heated duel, with both players cooling off with ice packs and wet towels during the breaks. Dana attacked the net and broke serve for a 6-5 lead, and the following game went all the way to deuce once again. Dana’s first-serve precision ultimately led to another unforced error, giving the Cosmos a semifinal date with top-seeded Burr and Burton (13-0) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Springfield improves to 7-5, while U-32 ends the season at 9-8. “We tripled our number of wins from three last year to nine this season,” Dayton said. “I think we earned a lot of respect from other teams.”