Women's tennis finishes fourth in AAC tournament

Junior Cheri Lomison strikes the ball with precision and strength against her opponent. The Lady Buffs tennis team finished its season fourth in the AAC tournament last week, 7-2 in the AAC and 7-4 overall.

-Photo courtesy of Amber Campbell

The Lady Buffs tennis team placed third in the Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament on April 23 and 24 as they closed out a their season 7-2 Appalachian Athletic Conference and 7-4 overall.

The Lady Buffs scored 10 points in the tournament, trailing only behind Virginia Intermont College (22) and Virginia Wise (19).

The Lomison sisters, junior Cheri and sophomore Cassie, played two impressive games during the tournament. Cassie put on a show in the no. 1 singles final with her opponent, Kago Phatshwane, a senior from VI who went undefeated during her four years on the team. Three and a half hours of extraordinary shots and shot placement, commanding serves, and long volleys, and two set tie breakers later, Phatshwane pulled out the victory 6-7 (3-8) and 6-7 (5-8).

Undoubtedly, Cassie was the underdog going into the match. As she faced Phatshwane, who has been such a dominant singles player the past couple years, Cassie had the support of not only her family, friends, and fellow teammates, but also of those from the other schools in the conference.

“Whenever (the other AAC tennis players and coaches) would walk by they would cheer ‘let’s go Milligan’ or ‘come on Cassie, you can do it!” Cassie said.

“It was the first time I have ever seen such encouragement from rival schools,” said Coach Marvin Glover, “It was quite flattering to see them favor Cassie.”

Meanwhile, four courts down from her younger sister, Cheri was in her finals match at the no. 5 position. Losing the first set 3-6, Cheri came out swinging and took over the next two sets winning 6-3 and 6-1.

“Cheri was way more out fit than her opponent, I knew that if the match went to three sets, Cheri would be victorious,” Glover said.

After their long, grueling singles matches, the Lomison sister went on to play in the no. 1 doubles semi-finals where they were defeated 2-6, 4-6 by VI’s duo of Esther Mbugua and Phatshwane.

“Cassie told me her legs felt like mush, but I felt pretty good until halfway through our doubles match when my legs started to get really tired,” Cheri said.

Milligan’s no. 3 doubles pair of senior Amy Vincent and freshman Krissi Denton, who had a first round bye due to their undefeated record in the regular season, were upset Virginia Wise 4-6, 6-7 (4-8) .

The Lady Buffs put up a fight against the perennial force of VIC and VW in the second round of the singles matches. However, seniors Lyndsey Bowie and Sara Wallingford, junior Jessica Conn, and freshman Amber Campbell all lost in nail biters.

Finishing third unfortunately ended the women’s season as only the top two schools move on to the regional tournament next weekend.

Cassie Lomison finished the season with a handful of awards. She was named to the All-Conference team, alongside Campbell; named to Academic All-Conference with her sister Cheri; and was one of the six on the Sportswoman team.

Coach Glover and the team have all expressed high hopes in the future for the team.