Intensity. Anger. Intimidation. The looks on Hudson senior Alex Bastock's face, and some occasional verbal outbursts, during her district quarterfinal tennis match Thursday reflected numerous emotions, none of them happy. This was a girl whose game face shouldn't be messed with. When it was over, however, she was happy, happy, happy.
Hudson's Alex Bastock overcame a 1-5, first-set deficit set to beat Magnificat's Noelle Kaufmann, 7-5, 6-2, in the singles match of the day at the Oberlin Division I district tournament.
Intensity. Anger. Intimidation. The looks on Hudson senior Alex Bastock's face, and some occasional verbal outbursts, during her district quarterfinal tennis match Thursday reflected numerous emotions, none of them happy. This was a girl whose game face shouldn't be messed with.
When it was over, however, she was happy, happy, happy.
"Now that I'm here, it's really great," a beaming Bastock said.
Bastock overcame a 1-5, first-set deficit set to beat Magnificat's Noelle Kaufmann, 7-5, 6-2, in the singles match of the day at the Oberlin Division I district tournament.
Thursday's singles and doubles quarterfinal winners will play in Saturday's semifinals beginning at 9 a.m., and, more importantly, they are guaranteed berths in next week's state tournament. Bastock is one of the area's premier players and has verbally accepted a full scholarship to Wright State, but the state tournament somehow has eluded her until now.
Falling behind 1-5 in previous years might have wilted Bastock, but she was determined not to let this opportunity go. Bastock's outbursts, directed at herself, seemed to spur her on, and she grew stronger as the match progressed, blasting serves and spraying baseline winners.
"The first set, she really came out swinging and she got up, 5-1, pretty fast," Bastock said of Kaufmann. "It took me completely off guard, and then I just sort of dug in and played the best I could, got to five-all and said, 'This is the moment to break.' "
Bastock broke Kaufmann's serve at 5-5 and didn't look back. She won the set and went up, 3-1, in the second set.
"I trained over the summer almost every day for this," Bastock said. "It was my goal as a senior to get to state. I don't care what I had to do."
Revere senior Natalie Robson, a state doubles qualifier last year, beat Massillon Jackson's Trisha Conlan, 6-0, 6-4, in a quarterfinal and will play Westlake's Lauren Golick, who won both her matches Thursday, 6-0, 6-0.
The sunny, breezy afternoon at Oberlin College produced some drama on the doubles courts, as well. Beaumont sisters Erin and Caitlin Lawless rallied to beat 2009 state qualifiers Mitsuki Fukamachi and Joy Walker of Mayfield, 2-6, 6-0, 6-3. The Lawlesses will play an all-sister semifinal against Kenston's Victoria and Mandy Marchant.
"I think we were going for too much and were way too aggressive early," Caitlin Lawless said. "We just tried to breathe and take our time the second set."
The Marchants, who beat the Lawlesses at last week's sectional, are making a return trip to state.
"This is the best thing in the world for me," Mandy Marchant said. "We're like best friends, so to go back to state with [Victoria] is great."
Westlake's Michelle Djohan and Kelsey Wanhainen will play Canfield's Allison Pavlansky and Kaitlin Kaleel in the other semifinal.
The top six singles and doubles players will earn state berths.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: twarsinskey@plaind.com, 216-999-4661