ERMA — The Caper Tiger girls tennis team knocked off No. 8 seed West Deptford in the first round of the South Jersey Group I tournament Sept. 30, but was facing top-seed Pitman (14-3) Tuesday, after the Star and Wave went to press.
Head coach Greg Douglass said the 5-0 win in the first round wasn’t so much an upset as a demonstration the seedings in the tournament didn’t do his team justice. The Lower Cape May Regional High School team was given the ninth seed.
“We deserved a better seed than what we got,” Douglass said, so the win “proved the seeding committee was wrong.”
He said facing Pitman would be a challenge.
Douglass said a higher seed would have given his girls a home match, but they went on the road and did well.
Against West Deptford, first singles Ainsley Reed, a senior, and third singles Mia Gilbert, a sophomore, gave up only one game each in their 6-0, 6-1 victories. Second singles Bryn Popdan, another senior, also won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, as did first doubles Kayla Heinold and Reilly Fitzpatrick, 6-1, 6-2.
Second doubles Grace Dematteis and Leah Harkins split their sets, winning 6-4 in the first and falling 1-6 in the second before winning the tie-breaker 10-7.
After some very successful seasons in recent years, the Caper Tigers were moved to a tougher division.
“Our problem this year is we’ve won a couple championships the last couple of years and they’ve moved us up to the top part of our league, so the tennis is much better. It’s more enjoyable to watch,” Douglass said.
LCMR was 16-4 last year, 14-9 in 2023 and 18-4 in 2022.
“It’s great tennis right now. We’re struggling to get some wins, but we’ll take it as it is.”
He noted the girls enjoy the challenge.
“I think they’d rather play somebody tougher than somebody maybe weaker where it’s not fun,” he said. “They’ve stepped up to the plate and you know, we’ll get our wins when we can, and hopefully somewhere along the line, we’re going to knock somebody off that we shouldn’t have.”
Although the team has some experienced players, the lineup shifted around since the team graduated No. 1 Maddie Gilbert, who is now playing for Kutztown University.
Tennis has a much earlier playoff schedule than other fall sports.
Douglass said the goal of his team this year has been to be competitive in all of their matches, which they have done.
“There hasn’t been one match we’ve gotten blown out or anything like that,” the coach said. “It’s worked out so far this year. I think we’re getting better as we’re coming around to the second part of the season playing the same teams over again. I think we’re more of a challenge to them.”
The girls lost to Middle Township 4-1 on Wednesday, Oct. 1. Gilbert earned the lone win against the Panthers, but Reed and first doubles split sets and went to third-set tiebreakers before falling, attesting to the closeness of that match.
The LCMR girls, now 5-7 on the season (0-7 in the American Division), beat visiting Millville 4-1 on Thursday, Oct. 2. Reed, Popdan, Gilbert and the first doubles all won in straight sets. Second doubles Dematteis and Violet Vitelli fell in a close match, 7-6 (7-5) 6-2.
The Caper Tigers fell to Millville 4-1 earlier in the season, so beating the Thunderbolts was an example of what the coach hoped as the team got into the part of the season in which they faced the same teams again.
