Eagles tennis playing strong

TAKING A SWING: Anderson's Yui Gabrial hits the ball back to Cassie DeBonnis in a long rally at the tennis match against West Valley on Thursday at Anderson High School. DeBonis went on to win the match, 6-2, 6-2.

The Lady Eagles have been playing hard on the court, losing a close match to Corning 4-5, and winning against Anderson, 6-3.

Taylor Needham was down in the first set 2-5 against Corning's Mellissa Owens, but was able to come back and win the match 7-5, 6-2.

"I think Taylor finally figured out the wind, it was really windy that day, which makes hitting the ball more difficult," said Tom Wyrick, girls' tennis coach for West Valley.

Cassie DeBonis and Natalie McAuliffe also won their matches against Corning and DeBonis and Needham won their doubles match.

West Valley then went on to play the Lady Cubs at Anderson. DeBonis, Needham, McAuliffe, and Allison Tucker won their matches for the Eagles.

Tiffany Bernal of Anderson had a close match against Amanda Richardson and was able to win for the Cubs as well as her teammate Kaela Clemens. who played Eta Ecenbarger.

DeBonis and Needham played doubles against Anderson's Sandy Moreno and Yui Gabriele. They were down 4-7 at one point during the match, but were able to come back and win 9-7.

"In Cassie and Taylor's doubles, they finally started hitting their shots instead of hitting it to the front person," said Wyrick. "Cassie and Taylor are really getting on a roll both in singles and doubles."