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Senior van Rooyan rescues Tigers
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
NEVADA, Mo. -- Like it was straight out of a storybook, Nevada senior Anita van Rooyan gave the Lady Tiger tennis team the lift it needed in a 5-4 victory over Harrisonville Tuesday.
Playing the final regular season match of her career, in the team's final home match of the season, van Rooyan took the court in the last singles match of the day Tuesday evening at the Nevada High School tennis courts.
It wasn't by design that van Rooyan, Nevada's No. 4 singles player, played the final varsity match of the day, but it did reek of fate's happenstance.
It was van Rooyan that came up to Nevada coach Dennis Pendrak before the team dual began, asking if they could play doubles first.
Pendrak said he would make it happen, and when the Harrisonville coach didn't object, that's just what occurred.
The two teams started with the three varsity doubles matches.
Each team won a doubles match easily, with Nevada's Molly Ferree and Whitley del Rosario cruising at No. 1 doubles 8-1.
Harrisonville won the No. 3 doubles match with equal efficiency, taking an 8-3 decision.
At No. 2 doubles, van Rooyan and Megan Stacy got all they bargained for, squandering a 6-3 lead before rallying to take a 9-7 victory over Lindsay Daniels and Cayla Luzadder.
That the match at No. 2 doubles took so long to finish, meant the No. 3 and No. 4 singles players would be the last to go, allowing the athletes ample time to rest.
Nevada would get wins at No. 1 singles and No. 2 singles, as del Rosario (8-1) and Ferree (8-2) both made quick work of their opponents. That gave the Lady Tigers a 4-1 lead in the team standings, but Harrisonville would mount a comeback.
Allison Mollenhour beat Nevada's Elise McNeil 8-2 at No. 5 singles, and Cassie Cunningham topped Lady Tiger Nicole Foreman at No. 6 singles 8-6.
That made the team score 4-3 with two singles matches remaining.
Megan Stacy fell to Daniels at No. 3 singles, and the match was tied with only one more singles contest still in play. That was van Rooyan taking on Luzadder on Court 3.
Nevada couldn't have picked a better stopper to finally secure the match. Their lone senior, van Rooyan, came in undefeated in singles during duals this season with a 9-0 record.
Once again the upperclassman took the lead, knocking off Luzadder 8-5, capping a perfect singles season and giving Nevada a team victory to close out the 2006 campaign.
"It was good for Anita," Pendrak said. "She's by far the hardest worker (on the team)."
Nevada finished the season 6-6 in team matches, climbing back to .500 after looking up at the break-even mark most of the year.
Van Rooyan finished 10-0 in singles this season, to go with an impressive 14-2 mark in doubles play.
"It was a great way to end," Pendrak said.
Other players who finished the regular season with a winning record were del Rosario (7-5 this season) in singles, Ferree (10-2) in singles, and the two combined for a 15-5 mark in doubles competition.
Nevada will finish the season in the district tennis tournament in Joplin Friday and Saturday.