Saturday Senior Pennant hit round 4 this week and Section 3 Mixed produced several ladder changes with only two points separating Moriac, Moolap, Surfcoast Torquay’s Blue and White teams at the start of the day.
Moriac put itself clear on top of the ladder with a 5-1 win over the competition’s newest club, St Leonards.
St Leonards has rejoined association tennis after a lengthy hiatus, with Rachel Knez and Britt Olver having not played for 15 years and while Ben Knez and James Goetz are playing in their first season.
In contrast, the Moriac team has a number of years’ experience under its belt and this showed through on the day. St Leonards wasn’t completely outplayed, having plenty of good rallies and winning the third mixed and no doubt will improve as the season goes on.
Surfcoast Torquay Blue remained in second with a nail-biting win over Moolap at home by only three games. The teams went set for set with Blue ahead by a game after the first mixed sets, then three games after the doubles, and with the two reverse mixed decided 6-2 each way, that was where the result stayed. Standout for the day was Marie Kullenberg winning her three sets. With the competition so tight, the loss saw Moolap drop to fourth.
Surfcoast Torquay White pushed into third with an away win over Western Heights, 4-2. Each team had a comfortable win in the first round of mixed before White put itself ahead winning both Men’s and Women’s doubles.
The teams then split the reverse mixed sets putting White ahead four sets to two with Emma Lothian leading the team, winning her three sets.
Newcomb travelled to Eastern Districts for the final match of the round and helped its standing in the grade with a 5-1 win. The teams were level after the first mixed sets with each team winning one 6-4, but from there Newcomb proved too strong winning the final four sets.
The team made use of playing six players and Alison Steele, Marc Patrick, Justin Whitworth and Stacey Jensen won their two sets for the day.
While there is still a long way to go before finals, the teams appear to be very competitive and there will be plenty of jostling for positions in the four and the minor premiership as the season wears on.
