The University of Lincoln Women’s 1st team took on that of Oxford Brookes University today and won 5-3 overall.
The teams took part in four doubles matches and four singles matches.
The first of the doubles saw Rhonwen Arthur and Catherine Elliott take on the visitor’s Amy Winter and Annika Veiling. Despite scores getting close to being equal after the home team scored 12 Lincoln always looked confident. High tempo rallies were not foreign to this first game but Lincoln succeeded in the majority of them and put the visitor’s hopes of a win to bed. Lincoln finished the game nine points ahead. The second game was a different story as Veiling and Winter frustrated the home side until the end of the game. Here, Lincoln’s continued determination applied enough pressure on the opponents to force them into a series of mistakes that lead to Lincoln winning this game 21-18 and therefore the match.
Arthur and Elliott came to life in their second match against Emma Christmas and Amy Hawthorn as they worked as a cohesive unit to get the job done. Arthur offered a wide range of technical, well placed shots that tricked the opponents and made her unpredictable. Elliott’s work rate was admirable and it paid off on a number of occasions in both games. The most impressive example was her shot to make it 6-3 as she followed up a rapid return to drive it into the opposition half before they even had chance to swing their racquets. They came from behind in the first game to win but ended on a high as they finished the second game 12 points ahead of the visitors.
Becky Karnecki and Ellie Thompson made up Lincoln’s second doubles team who started their evening with a match against Emma Christmas and Amy Hawthorn. This match was reminiscent of Arthur and Elliot’s first as the two sped through the first game which finished 21-5 but it then got a little bit trickier. The visitors came out with everything that they had and Hawthorn looked dangerous when able to get power on the shuttle. This led to a much closer score line where Oxford took an early lead and Lincoln were forced to wait to take them over. However, they stayed focused and waited for their chance and after putting consistent pressure on their opponents they took advantage and came away with a 21-18 win.
In their second match they faced Veiling and Winter and the visitor’s frustration was already beginning to show. After falling to an early lead to the home side it seemed as if there was no way back for Oxford Brookes. Lincoln never looked back and loose shots in the air were capitalised on by Karnecki who smashed them into the opposition half. The positioning of their shots which were close to the opponent gave the visitors no time to react and they couldn’t handle it.
Although Oxford Brookes came out fighting in the second game Lincoln had found a groove of form. Every time that Oxford came close to levelling the scores, Karnecki and Thompson were there to increase their score line. This game ended 21-12 and overall the home doubles looked convincing in their wins. However, Oxford dominated the singles matches winning three out of the four.
Lincoln’s Stephanie Tiliman got Lincoln’s only singles win as she beat Lisa Phillips 21-9 in the first game and 21-4 in the second. Oxford’s April Pui Wan Ng then won two successive singles matches over Tiliman and Anna Clark. She beat Clark 8-21 in the first game and 21-1 in the second and she beat Tiliman with scores of 20-22 and 17-21. Phillips then beat Clark to get Oxford’s third win of the evening with scores of 10-21 and 13-21.
Despite this run of form in the singles competitions, Lincoln were the overall winners of today’s matches as they won five of the eight on offer as opposed to Oxford’s three.
University of Lincoln 5-3 Oxford Brookes University