18U Girls County Cup Report

The 18U Girls County Cup was held in Tipton, with the three other teams in Oxfordshire's group being Bedfordshire, Cumbria & Channel Islands. The team consisted of Ottelia, Laila, Sonia, Jasmine, Mishel, Olivia & Ella. 

First up on Friday was the Channel Islands. The team got off to a great start with straight set singles wins from Ottelia, Laila, Sonia and Mishel. Jasmine and Olivia both had close matches, narrowly losing in three long sets. However, with a 4-2 lead heading into the doubles the girls were feeling confident. Olivia and Ella had a close battle but unfortunately just lost out on a match tie-break. In the other two doubles matches, Sonia and Laila secured a straight sets win at first pair, shortly followed by Mishel and Ottelia who also won in straight sets to secure a 6-3 win for Oxfordshire.

Up next on Saturday was Cumbria. The day started off extremely well with all the team playing some brilliant tennis, setting themselves up very nicely for the doubles with a 5-1 lead. The winning streak continued on the doubles court, resulting in a convincing overall win for Oxfordshire 7-2. This meant the girls would be playing for promotion against Bedfordshire on the final day.

Going into the third and final day of the tournament the girls knew they would be facing tough opponents, however they were all very much up for the challenge. Olivia got the teams first win of the day in a tight three set match, followed shortly after by a very solid win from Sonia. Laila fought extremely hard to come through a thrilling three set match, leveling the score at 3-3. It was now down to the doubles to decide which team would gain promotion. After some extremely close tennis on all three courts, unfortunately Bedfordshire proved too strong and took wins in two out of the three doubles meaning we very narrowly missed out on promotion 5-4. Regardless of the final score, the girls all fought extremely hard throughout the three days and should be very proud of themselves.

I'd like to say a big thank you to Tennis Oxfordshire for their continued support, Tipton Sports Academy for hosting and a huge well done to the girls for all their hard work. 

Lucy Brown, 18U Girls Captain