Tennis Camp

Several All-American Tennis camp participants, past and present, were featured in The Cleveland Plain Dealer’s High School Girls Tennis Preview on August 14.  Among the analysis by the PD:

Victoria Marchant, Sr., Kenston:Teamed with her younger

sister, Mandy, to reach the Division I state doubles tournament. New coach Greg Aten said he was unsure if the Marchants will team up again or play singles.

Kelsey Wanhainen, Sr., Westlake: She is the reigning Southwestern Conference champ at second singles and teams with Lauren Golick to give the Lady Demons a nice 1-2 punch.

Allyson Doragi, Sr., Laurel: A two-time district qualifier and a state qualifier in 2008, she will probably play singles during the regular season before a decision is reached on her status for the postseason. Either way, she brings a wealth of experience.

Kenston: Led by the Marchant sisters, senior Victoria and sophomore Mandy, the Bombers are as deep as any team around. Junior Shea Marks, sister of state qualifier Nolan, is strong at third singles. Junior Keirsten Kure will team with Morgan Weemhoff at first doubles and freshman Miranda Kyle, senior Katie Marks (cousin of Shea and Nolan), Kathleen Swanson or Kendall Althans will make up the second doubles team

Westlake: More than 12 area coaches were unanimous in calling the Demons the best team around. Coach Ralph Dunbar is in his 15th season and has four nationally-ranked players on his squad, an oddity for a public school. The team, led by sophomore Lauren Golick and senior Kelsey Wanhainen, was 20-1 last year and has added Dunbar’s freshman daughter, Julia, to an already solid lineup.

Chagrin Falls: The Lady Tigers have a lineup that can compete with anyone, led by state qualifiers Emily Mazzola, Anna Benson and Erica Leone. Senior Sarah Ross, sophomore Riley White and junior Madeline O’Neil are likely candidates to fill out the remaining spots.

To see the complete article visit the Plain Dealer website.

Volleys were the main focus this morning at the last full day of the All-American Tennis Camp. After learning proper volley technique and placement, as well as correct doubles movement and positioning, we practiced volley rallies and moving together as a doubles team. This practice certainly paid off as this morning’s Olympic game was Aerobic Volleys. Competitors had to keep their feet moving for an entire game to 4 points or risk hearing the dreaded words POINT PENALTY! In the red division the Teeny Tiny Tigers continued to dominate, now leading the pack with a score of 14 points. The Purple Pickles are heading up the white division with a score of 11 points, while the Purple Flying Squirrels from Narnia make an excellent showing, leading the blue division with 13 points.

The focus on doubles continued in the afternoon session as the All-American Tennis Camp doubles tournament began. After dividing campers into north side and south divisions, we learned how to play a 12 point tie-breaker, as well as work on the serve-and-volley skills and doubles movement we perfected in the morning session. A congratulation goes out to our south side winners Annie and Krish and our north side winners Riku and Claire. Way to go!!

The threats of rain proved to be harmless as we entered into our final evening session of the week. While some campers enjoyed private lessons, games, and beat the pro, the college teams Texas, Butler, and Duke competed in the college tennis consolation draw. Texas defeated Butler 16-12, while Duke stopped UNC 15-13. Tonight’s talent show was truly entertaining, with Counselor Andy’s group winning a pizza for their skit titled “Granny Knows Best” Other skits included Joanna’s “Tennis Shore”, Alex’s “The Decision”, and Ashley’s “Tennis Camp Apocalypse”. Congratulations to Andy’s group. Camp winds down tomorrow with a review of strokes and the epic all-camp Around-the-World. Stay tuned, you don’t want to miss it.

We have posted a new set of photos from the All-American Tennis Camp – Session III at the College of Wooster.  The photos were taken Wednesday morning during volley work.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE LATEST PHOTOS!

Serving was the main focus of the day here at All-American tennis camp. After beginning our morning with some new dynamic stretching, the campers worked on improving one of the most important shots of the game: the serve. After discussing the importance of a good toss (did you know that 80% of missed serves are due to an incorrect toss?) and the continental grip, the campers did several drills to work on toss consistency and upward extension. After seeing a great deal of improvement on both grips and serves, we stepped up to the baseline to get even more practice. The persistence paid off and helped lead our Olympic teams to victory in our morning session competition. In the red division, the Teeny Tiny Tigers swept the competition in our serving game, pulling them ahead to 1st place in their division with 11 points. In the blue division, the Purple Pickles and 3 Hour Tour are tied with 8 points each. In the white division, the Purple Flying Squirrels from Narnia hold a strong lead with 10 points. After a break for lunch and working on skits for tomorrow night’s all-camp talent show, the campers were back on the courts for still more serves. All this practice certainly paid off as the Babalot Big Serve Competition went underway. (SEE PREVIOUS POST) Finally, the college tennis competition in our evening session is getting more intense by the day with the semi finals playing, Syracuse def. Ohio State and Notre Dame beat Vermont, meaning Thursday College Cup championship will be Syracuse v. Notre Dame.

After a fun evening of bowling at the College of Wooster’s Scot Lanes, the campers went to bed in anticipation of a day of volleys and the talent show.

Today’s Olympic Highlight was the weekly Babolat Big Serve Competition.  Each camper was given three serves and their fastest serve that went into the service box was recorded.  Each of the three divisions (Red, White, and Blue) were awarded a Big Serve Champ.  Division Champs were:  Devon (Blue) 63 mph, Austin M (Red) 78 mph, and Tom (White) 76 mph.   The camps fastest serve was the 78 mph heater made by Austin M.

All campers scores are recorded below.  Again only serves that went in were recorded. If  a player did not make one of their three serves, an “X” was recorded.

BABOLAT BIG SERVE COMPETITION

We have posted the first set of photos from the All-American Tennis Camp – Session III.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS SET OF PHOTOS!

We have posted new photos from the Match Play Tennis Camp.  CLICK HERE TO SEE TODAY’S PHOTOS

Today was the start of the second match play week.  Luckily it wasn’t too hot, nor rainy.  Let’s hope it stays that way throughout the rest of the week   After a quick orientation and evaluation, coaches worked with campers on building a foundation for tennis.  Cross court shots are key for tennis players when it comes to winning most matches.  For the rest of the week, cross court foundations will be a regular part of tennis play.

This evening started our team tennis matches.  We have six new college teams to start another college tournament.  Each night two teams will play a full seven singles line up and the other two matches will be a singles and doubles mixture of five matches.  Each team will play both types of line ups throughout the week.  Campers are encouraged to fight for every last game because the team score is not who wins the most matches, but who wins the most games collectively.   Before the lightning struck Wooster, here are the results:

Arizona State beat Rice (30-24)
Alec vs. Steve (3-8)
Christian vs. Rebecca (8-3)
Danielle B vs. TJ (3-8)
Laura vs. Maria (8-2)
Emily/Hannah S. vs. Erin/Alia (8-3)

Nebraska beat Texas A&M (33-24)
Andrew vs. Hannah A. (8-3)
Morgan vs. Jake (1-8)
Jeffery vs. Owen (8-1)
Nick/Olivia vs. Tyler/Ryan (8-7)
Mary Grace/Jessica vs. Taylor/Tom (8-5)

Ohio State beat University of Washington (36-31)
**some matches ended early because of lightning
Will vs. Jarad (2-8)
Michael vs. Erica (8-1)
Danielle L. vs. Dakota (7-3)
Allison vs. Carter (6-2)
Candace vs. Ashley (0-8)
Devesh vs. Nico (5-5)
Sean vs. Dan (8-3)

Tomorrow’s forecast looks better than last week so hopefully we’ll be outside the whole day.  The singles tournament starts tomorrow bright and early at 8am, so stay tuned for those results!

Today was the first day in such a long time where the weather has been nearly perfect.  The sun was shining and campers were running.  The morning started early with 8am tournament matches with campers playing to get into the quarters.  To start the morning session, Coach Eric taught the campers a new warm up from the Malawi soccer team.  It involves more running than usual, which Director Dave loves!  Our session continued as we worked on both offense and defense singles strategies.  The afternoon session focused on doubles strategies.  Director Dave and Coach Eric went over the four doubles positions and how to react in certain situations.

The evening session continued the rained out matches from yesterday.  The results are as follows:

OSU beat Syracuse
Jarad vs. Mitch (7-8)
Jessica vs. Les (0-8)
Bennett/Stephen vs. Christian/Joe M. (8-4)
Bryce/Danielle vs. Eric G./Robby (8-5)
Brian vs. Bridey (8-0)

USC beat Virginia
Mike P. vs. Chelsea (8-2)
Rob/Andrew vs. Will/Alex (8-6)
Joe/Caitlinn vs. Hailey/Emma (2-8)
Zach vs. David (1-8)
Kevin vs. Adrian (8-0)

Slippery Rock beat Georgetown
Weston vs. Mary (8-0)
Mike N./Chandler vs. Steph/Alex (0-8)
Haley/Jack R vs. Jacob/Taylor (8-6)
Tanner vs. Erica (8-6)
Tyler vs. Natalie (8-4)

Duke beat Michigan
Jack vs. Ari (8-6)
Natasha/Dillon vs. Nathan/Mike (5-8)
Elliot/Sissel vs. Morgan/Liz (8-2)
Donovan vs. Brandon (8-1)
Connor vs. Eric L. (3-8)

The overall team standings are as follows:
OSU: 3-0 (87 total games)
Duke: 2-1 (87 total games)
Syracuse: 2-1 (86 total games)
USC: 2-1 (80 total games)
Michigan: 1-1-1 (77 total games)
Georgetown: 1-1-1 (67 total games)
Virginia: 1-2 (72 total games)
Slippery Rock: 1-2 (66 total games)

Tomorrow is the team finals.  OSU will play Duke for the championship.  Stay tuned!