THE INDEX JOURNAL

Sports

EMERALD FALLS SHORT AT STATE

By KEVIN FIORENZO/Index-Journal sports writer

Published: Sunday, November 4, 2007 12:18 AM EDT

Emerald's Arielle Barraca, center, holds up the runner-up trophy, while,

from left, Maggie Elliott, Sidney Ann Fowler and Morgan Lee watch after the

Lady Vikings' 5-1 loss. (Staff photo by Scott J. Bryan)

COLUMBIA -- While the Emerald High School girls tennis team fell to Bishop England in the Class AA state finals Saturday, you wouldn’t know it from the upbeat feeling around the team following the match.

The Vikings fell 5-1, its only win coming from Arielle Barraca at No. 3 singles, but to make it this far and still gain recognition as one of the best teams in the state is a pretty sizable accomplishment in itself.

“(Top) two out of the whole state, that’s pretty awesome,” Emerald head coach Susan Timmerman said. “We’re really proud.”

Saturday’s trip to Columbia was the Vikings’ third in school history and the first time they didn’t come away with a victory. Emerald won in 1994 and 1996, coincidentally against the Battling Bishops each time.

For Bishop England, a Catholic private school out of Charleston, it was the 14th state title for the school but the first since 2003. The Battling Bishops lost just one individual match in three playoff matches before Saturday. Instead of ruminating over mistakes made, the Vikings acknowledged they were simply outplayed.

Aside from Barraca, the other five matches were straight set defeats, and the most games won by Emerald was seven by No. 2 Claire Gillespie in her match.

“It was just really good to get this far, and the girls (from Bishop England) were good,” Emerald No. 1 Sarah Seigler said.

Though the match appears lopsided based on the scores, it was a bit tighter. By playing with no-ad scoring, in which a sudden death point takes place at deuce, the games became much more of a toss-up.

“My girls had so many times where it was deuce and because it’s no-ad scoring they couldn’t close out the game,” Timmerman said. “It seemed like 90 games went to deuce. It’s just maturity and being able to close out the point.”

Seigler fell in her match 6-1, 6-2 to Bishop England’s Sallie Johnson, as she had trouble finding an effective game plan to combat her opponent.

“I struggled to figure out something to do against her. She didn’t have many weaknesses,” Seigler said. “I figured out that if I came into the net, I was usually OK, but she wouldn’t give me anything to come in off of. She just had a stronger game.”

Fortunately for the Vikings, Seigler is one of five players from Emerald’s starting roster that returns next season.

Emerald will have holes to fill at the bottom of its singles lineup, though, upon the graduation this spring of seniors Morgan Lee and Sidney Ann Fowler, the Nos. 4 and 5 starters.

“That hurts pretty bad; they’ve been rock solid this year,” Timmerman said. “We’re going to truly miss them, but they promised to come back from Clemson and see us.”

Timmerman expects to bring in a few new players, possibly a seventh-grader and a couple sixth-graders. That youth movement might be the first step toward making Saturday’s loss more of a beginning than an ending.

“I think we’re a young team, and we definitely will be back,” Timmerman said.