Manchester completed a fine turnaround to beat high-flying Sheffield and book their place in the last 16 of the BUCS Tennis 2012-13 Trophy.
Trailing 4-2 after the first round of games, the Manchester girls recovered superbly in the final round, with Andrea Louka and Emily Egan-Morriss winning their singles matches before doubles pairing Joanne Marsden and captain Lucy Darby sealed the crucial winning points.
In truth, the score could have been more convincing either way, with four of the eight matches going right to the wire in a tense afternoon of tennis.
The day started well for the home side, with captain Lucy Darby earning the first points in a comfortable 6-0 6-1 victory over Becky Davidson. The unfamiliar doubles pairing of Emily Egan-Morriss and Andrea Louka, meanwhile, seemed a little out of form, but battled well to drag their match against Katy Kelsall and Lizzie Jones into a third set tie-break.
Unfortunately, it was Sheffield who held their nerve to win the match, before Annabel Sidwell dispatched of Joanne Marsden to take the visitors into a 4-2 overall lead.
At this point, the home side could have been forgiven for feeling hard done-by, but they responded superbly in a closely-fought final round.
The one match that didn’t go the distance was that between Emily Egan-Morriss and Katy Kelsall. Frustrated by her doubles defeat, and forgetting any earlier problems with her serve, Egan-Morriss quickly dispatched of the fading Kelsall, her impressive 6-0 6-0 victory coming inside of an hour to the level the scores once more.
Andrea Louka, meanwhile, was involved in another thriller on court 4, as her singles match against Lizzie Jones went down to another championship tie-break. This time, however, Louka showed great nerve to claim the match point, as another fierce forehand return left Jones with a near-impossible recovery from the baseline of the court.
With the two singles victories confirmed, all eyes now turned to court 6 as Lucy Darby and Joanne Marsden sought to press home their advantage against Annabel Sidwell and Becky Davidson. After trading blows for much of the first set, Manchester again held their nerve to take the tie-break, before battling from 3-2 down in the second to seal their passage into the second round.
