Friends’ Central and Shipley Girls Tennis Halted by Rain

With the threat of more rain on the way Tuesday afternoon, and started their girls' tennis match at Haverford School early in hopes of completing the match before the forecasted rain began.

Unfortunately, that did not happen and when the match was halted, three of the five matches were completed and Shipley held a 2-1 advantage with two matches remaining.

Since Shipley joined the Friends Schools League in 2005, the regular season contest against Friends’ Central usually weighed in crowning the Friend’s League playoff champion.

In the five regular season meetings in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, the winner of the regular season match went onto to capture the Friends' Schools League crown every time except 2009.

In 2009, the Friends' Central Phoenix dealt the Shipley Gators a 3-2 loss in the regular season, but Shipley came back to surprise everyone by knocking off Friends’ Central 3-2 in the title match that snapped two consecutive Friends Schools League crowns.

The host Shipley Gators gained the first point at third singles Tuesday when junior Tayller Macee defeated Sydney Shore 6-2, 6-1. Shipley then registered the second point when the first doubles team of lone senior Sophie Cummins and junior Bella Korfman defeated Emila Weinberg and Maggie Nierenberg 6-1, 6-2.

As the raindrops began to fall, the Friends' Central Phoenix sliced into the deficit when sophomore Sophie Book posted a 6-3, 6-2 win over junior Annie Lovett at number one singles. Just prior to the match at number one singles being completed, Shipley junior Haley Banks bounced back from dropping the first set against Arianna Pollack at second singles to win the second set 6-3 and force a third set when her match was stopped due to rain. 

The other match in progress was at second doubles where Hannah Kaminsky and Hannah Laren were leading the Shipley duo of junior Brianna Sedor and freshman Rachael Grobman 3-0 in the first set. 

The match will be completed at the point at which it was suspended at a later date.

“The regular season match is definitely important,” said Macee. “If we win, it gives us confidence moving forward with the rest of the regular season.”

Cummins added, “Since we joined the Friends Schools League, Friends’ Central has been a big rivalry. We are a close knit team and Friends’ Central is always a tough match.”

“Shipley is one of our biggest rivals,” said Friends’ Central’s Sophie Book. “We are a young team this year and a match like this against Shipley will help us get better.”

The Friends' Schools League season is just underway and there is plenty of tennis left to be played.