Top singles players pair up to make CCS
As tennis talents Amanda Marshall and Abbie Woods occupied their
respective No. 1 and No. 2 positions for San Benito all season
– as singles players, of course – their qualification to next
week’s Central Coast Section Championships shouldn’t come as too
much of a shock, even if they will be competing as a doubles
pairing.
After all, says coach Ed Cecena, it’s all tennis.
Top singles players pair up to make CCS
As tennis talents Amanda Marshall and Abbie Woods occupied their respective No. 1 and No. 2 positions for San Benito all season – as singles players, of course – their qualification to next week’s Central Coast Section Championships shouldn’t come as too much of a shock, even if they will be competing as a doubles pairing.
After all, says coach Ed Cecena, it’s all tennis.
“I don’t think it was that much of a surprise,” Cecena added. “They were both strong singles players and it’s not that much of a stretch.
“If you’re a good singles player, even if you don’t play a lot of doubles, you pick it up real quick. It’s all the same shots, just different angles, different strategy.”
After earning the No. 2 seed at the Tri-County Athletic League Tournament, despite having not played a single doubles match all season – a sign of respect, Cecena said – Marshall and Woods proceeded to back up their second-seed with three consecutive victories.
They downed Gilroy’s Cristina Carrillo and Viviana Mendez 6-2, 6-0; pushed past Notre Dame’s April Harvey and Brook Carrachiolli 6-2, 6-4; then bested Salinas’ Lily O’Mary and Shelby Weber 6-4, 6-2 in the championship final, and punched their CCS ticket in the process.
Glancing at the scores, it was somewhat convincing. But it wasn’t necessarily a breeze, mind you, especially in the first match.
“I think it was kind of weird for us to get into a groove and figure out what the other was thinking,” Marshall said. “There were a few times in the first match where we almost collided … It was kind of just getting in a rhythm.
“In that first match, it took us a few games. And we were like, ‘What are we doing out here?’ We started figuring out that we just needed to play our game instead of trying to change things too much. We had to find our center.”
Woods may have had a head start on Marshall in the doubles department, though. The senior tennis player was one half of a doubles pairing her sophomore year (she played singles her junior year), while her mother, a Watsonville High graduate who introduced Woods to the sport, still plays tennis, still competes in doubles, and is doling out the pointers to the CCS-bound team.
And unlike Marshall, who is a singles player at heart, Woods says she prefers a partner on the court.
“Amanda and I, we always had trouble with the wider lines,” said Woods, regarding the wider court doubles is played on. “We think of it as if we’re still playing singles. If we do go for our shots, if they go out a little, it’s still in.
“It’s a lot more fun, though. If I’m feeling down, she gets to build me up. If she’s feeling down, then I try to build her up.”
And it’s that fun factor that has made the seniors’ postseason run all the more enjoyable. After the TCAL semifinals, Notre Dame’s Harvey and Carrachiolli asked Marshall and Woods why they decided to play doubles, and like identical twins, the San Benito seniors responded in unison, “It’s more fun.”
Cecena combined his top-two singles players into a formidable doubles duo in order to compete with the strength of Salinas, which represented the TCAL this season at the CCS Team Championships.
“They played a total of three matches and they got better with each match as a doubles team,” Cecena said. “By the end of the third match, they were playing well. They were playing like they had played the whole season together.
“I know I had two strong singles players. It was just a matter of them bonding a little bit, gelling a little bit, and them finding out their weaknesses and strengths.”
If there was any outside force involved that aided the singles-turned-doubles pairing to qualify for Monday’s Girls’ CCS Individual Tennis Championships, though, it was apparently lacking when officials chose the matches.
Marshall and Woods, now unseeded, will open the 16-team tournament at the Courtside Tennis Club in Los Gatos against top-seeded Melissa Kobayakawa and Vynnie Kong of Monte Vista.
Matches begin Monday at noon.
“We were feeling really good about it, and then [Cecena] was like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re playing the No. 1 seed,'” Marshall said. “My mother keeps telling me don’t psych yourself out because you’ve never actually played them, so you don’t know.
“Don’t go in with any preconceived notions, but it’s still very ominous … It’s still a little scary.”
But, after all, it’s all tennis.
