San Benito’s Amanda Marshall and Abbie Woods won the doubles
championship Tuesday, beating Salinas’ Lily O’Mary and Shelby Weber
6-4, 6-2
SALINAS
They were singles players all season long, but Lady ‘Balers Amanda Marshall and Abbie Woods will head to the Central Coast Section Championships as a doubles pairing.
Marshall and Woods, who were San Benito’s No. 1 and No. 2 singles players this season, respectively, teamed up to claim the doubles championship Tuesday at the Tri-County Athletic League Tournament in Salinas when they defeated Cowboys Lily O’Mary and Shelby Weber 6-4, 6-2 in the doubles final.
“It seems like they got better with each match,” said coach Ed Cecena, who moved Marshall and Woods to doubles in order to compete with the strength of Salinas’ lineup at the TCAL Tournament.
Needless to say, the doubles duo wasn’t necessarily expecting much.
“I expected us to do better as a team, playing with Amanda,” Woods said. “I expected to have a lot of fun.
“But I’m pretty surprised. I expected us to do better than we would have done in singles, but I also expected it to be a challenge. We still have some stuff to work on, but overall it’s been pretty exciting.”
Salinas finished undefeated as a team this year and won the TCAL title as a result, an accolade they split with San Benito last season. On Tuesday, Cowboy Teagan Seeley ended up winning the singles bracket.
The TCAL Tournament ended up going a day longer than originally planned after inclement weather suspended play on both Saturday and Monday at Salinas High.
Heavy rains halted play on both days, and left several matches up in the air. In fact, before they could even reach the finals, Marshall and Woods were awaiting their semifinal opponent at the start of the day on Tuesday.
There was a chance the two could have faced fellow teammates Crystal Perreira and Vanessa Casalegno, but they lost their quarterfinal match against Notre Dame’s April Harvey and Brook Carrachiolli on Tuesday, 6-1, 7-5.
Marshall and Woods played Harvey and Carrachiolli in the semifinals instead, and the San Benito pairing won 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the doubles final.
“It’s very different,” Marshall said. “We had to play different roles and I’m not used to playing at the net as much, so I had to do some learning pretty quickly.
“The first match took us a little while to get in to a groove and find out what we’re doing.”
Marshall and Woods will now have two weeks off until the CCS Championships, which will be held at the Los Gatos Swim and Racket Club on Nov. 24.
“We’ll take a little break,” said Cecena, who added that each player comes from a tennis background and will probably be practicing quite a bit in the weeks ahead.
“Even if they’re not practicing with me, they’ll be ready,” Cecena said. “I’m sure they’ll get out on the tennis courts. They’ll get plenty of tennis in the next two weeks.”
