CC’s Ratchford earns fourth title
Senior Devil teams with Markovich for 2A crown
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Experience had a strong presence Saturday morning on the Herb Faris courts at Mansion Park as Central Cambria and State College captured District 6 girls doubles tennis championships.
Hollidaysburg's young tandem of Gretta Rhodes and Ella Jodon fell to State College's Quiana Guo and Catelyn Janac in the D4-6 3A finals, 6-2, 6-2, while Central Cambria's Olivia Ratchford and Coco Markovich downed Tyrone's Victoria Reese and Rachel Stricek, 6-1, 6-1, in the D6 2A final.
Janac and Guo were the defending champions, and it was Janac's third straight doubles title. Ratchford can one-up that because the senior won her fourth straight doubles champion with three different partners.
"What is difficult about that is if you are not used to playing it, it can be tough because it is a whole different game," Central Cambria coach Kim Cavalier said. "You have to adjust your game, learn to work with a partner, learn different strategies about ball placement. Liv adapts. We did some practices with them, but not much. They are just very athletic and they adapted to the change well."
Ratchford and Markovich came in as the No. 1 seed, beating teams from Forest Hills and Bishop Guilfoyle along the way. Against Reese and Stricek, the two jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.
"They are really good. The Ratchford girl is really good. Markovich is tremendous at the net. My girls hung in there and fought," said Tyrone coach Randy Irvin, whose girls were the No. 3 seed. "There were a lot of good points, and we had some chances, but their experience was too much."
Markovich got the winning point with a little dunk over the net that wasn't returned.
"Coco is great at the net. Tall. Gets everything. Liv plays the backline incredibly well and Coco complements her," Cavalier said.
Having a third different partner in four years was not as difficult as one might think.
"We clicked pretty fast," Ratchford said. "She's a good player. She is so consistent at the net. It was really easy for us to play together."
Markovich, a southpaw, said it took a little time to adjust to being in the finals, but not too long.
"To start I did feel a little bit of nerves, but they kind of faded away as I got more excited about the match," said the junior. "I have known Liv for a long time and she is such a good baseline player."
Reese was complimentary of her opponents in the end.
"We switched and both went to the back at one point, and that helped a lot, but they were just so tough," she said. "We were nervous to start, but once it got out of our heads, we played better, but they were just really good."
The Tyrone players beat teams from BG, Central Cambria and Forest Hills to get to the finals.
"I think people might have not expected us to get here, but we did our best. We got this far,'' Stricek said. "I think that's great, and we're only juniors."
In the 3A final, the match was a lot closer than the 6-2, 6-2 final might indicate. Lady Tigers coach Brian Denis watched his duo compete, but had trouble getting over the hump. They fell in a 3-0 hole early only to fight back to get it to 3-2.
"In our first set, there were seven or eight games where we had opportunities to win some of those but we missed out on them and it came back to bite us in the end," he said. "The opening game we are serving 30-love, and we somehow lost that game. Two games later, we were up 40-15 and we somehow lost that game. We dug a 3-0 hole and those are hard to dig out of sometimes."
Janac and Guo won the title last year, but like Rhodes and Jodon, did not play a lot of doubles this season.
"We did not do a great job of keeping the ball away from her," Denis said. "We didn't do enough to be aggressive at the net. We did not pick off a lot of balls at the net, what we call poaching the ball. We have to jump all over those."
But Denis was impressed that his girls kept scratching and clawing their way to get back into the match, but then Janac and Guo would adjust.
"We were up 40-14 at one point, got back in it, and then we would lose four points in a row," he said. "We were looking for something to turn the tables and get it to three-all because then it is an entirely new ballgame, but my hats off to State College. They are the two-time champs for a reason."
Rhodes, only a sophomore, and Jodon, a junior, beat teams from Central Mountain, Mifflin County and State College's other doubles team, to get to the finals.
"We showed signs of life at the end," Denis said. "It was nice to watch those four girls play (today)."
Cavalier says she will find out more information by today who her girls will play at states, most likely a team from the WPIAL.