Woodstown advances to girls tennis sectional semifinals working overtime against Schalick; also includes Tuesday’s county field hockey action
SJ GROUP I QIARTERFINALS
Pitman 5, Lower Cape May 0
Audubon 3, Pennsville 2 (Mon.)
Woodstown 4, Schalick 1
Haddon Twp. 5, Wildwood 0
THURSDAY’S SEMIFINALS
Audubon at Pitman
Woodstown at Haddon Twp.
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
WOODSTOWN – Jesse Stemberger gathered his Woodstown tennis team on the grassy knoll behind the tennis courts and laid down to make a point in a way befitting his unique coaching style.
The Wolverines had just dispatched county rival Schalick 4-1 to reach the South Jersey Group I girls tennis semifinals for the first time since 2022, but there were elements of their performance he needed to address.
Once he laid on the grass he asked for four volunteers to do all they could to keep him pinned down. Alyssa Berry, Madison LaPalomento and twins Nathalie and Noelle Neron each grabbed an arm or a leg and did all they could to keep their squirming coach pinned to the turf.
After a few moments Stemberger stopped struggling. His players instinctively relaxed, and that release was all the coach needed to sit straight up and thereby prove the point he was trying to convey about the effects of letting up.
The Wolverines won the first set in four of their five matches, but three of their four wins and four matches overall went to third-set 10-point tiebreakers. It didn’t have to be so stressful if they kept the pedal down.
“I don’t want to win matches in four tiebreakers, I want the straight sets; I’m not a tiebreaker guy,” Stemberger said. “Everybody on the team has played a 10-point tiebreaker this year, so they all experienced it, they all know it, so I think that helped coming into today.
“It’s a great neutralizer (tiebreakers), but mental toughness came through. That’s the beauty of coaching tennis here. They’re all high performers and I don’t question their mental toughness.”
He just has to reinforce it from time to time. He learned the demonstration he used Tuesday when he worked in the mental health industry and has kept the technique “in my back pocket” all these years for just such coachable moments. He said he’s used it maybe twice in his coaching career.
“I use that as an example to say as soon as we relaxed, we let them back in,” he said. “We’ve got to keep (the pressure) up.”
The players at first were confused by their coach’s demonstration, but they wound up getting the point.
“I was thinking what is going on,” said sophomore Emilee Kehr, LoPalomento’s doubles partner. “Another crazy demonstration. It turns out to be a message underneath that we realize after a match. (This message was) don’t give up, keep pushing.”
The No. 1 doubles team of LaPalomento and Kehr earned the Wolverines a huge first point when rallied from dropping the first set to even the match and then convincingly won a 10-5 tiebreaker. Nathalie Neron clinched the victory with a 6-2, 4-6, 10-5 win at No. 1 singles.
The No. 2 doubles team of Emma West and Angelina Lindenmuth bounced back after dropping the second set to win an intense 11-9 tiebreaker for the final margin. Berry scored the Wolverines’ second point with the only straight-set match of the day at No. 2 singles.
The tiebreaker wins by Nathalie Neron and LaPalomento-Kehr came over Schalick players who played in last weekend’s NJSIAA singles and double draw.
LaPalomento and Kehr never led in their first set, but fought back to get it tied before Olivia Lunemann and Sebrina Bradford close it out 7-5. They trailed 4-3 in the second set, then won the next three games to even the match. They took command of the tiebreaker with seven straight points to open a 9-2 lead.
Lunemann and Bradford played in the second round of the NJSIAA doubles draw Sunday.
“The tiebreaker is always a lot more pressure than a regular set,” Kehr said, “but because there is more pressure you want to do better, you want to just finish it out, and that’s exactly what we did. After the (second) set were like we lost the first one, we came back in the second one, we’ve just got to finish it. It’s like the moment this all led up to. We had to finish it out.”
The seven players in Woodstown’s lineup Tuesday were a combined 5-4 10-point tiebreakers coming into the match, 10-6 if you include the 7-point set tiebreakers.
Nathalie Neron was playing in the first singles tiebreaker of her career against Miya Watkins and never lost the lead. It was 4-2 at one point and then she locked in to roll off four straight points to take control. Watkins lost in the first round of the NJSIAA singles draw Saturday.
“At first it was nerve-wracking, but I needed to reset my mindset and think of it like a clean slate,” she said. “It can go either way. You’ve just got to get up and get up fast.”
The Wolverines (11-3) will now travel to second-seeded Haddon Twp. (12-4) Thursday for the semifinals. Audubon (13-1) plays at top-seeded Pitman (15-3) for the other spot in the Oct. 14 sectional finals.
WOODSTOWN 4, SCHALICK 1
Nathalie Neron (WO) def. Miya Watkins, 6-2, 4-6, 10-5
Alyssa Berry (WO) def. Annmarie Podehl, 6-2, 6-4
Macy Clow (S) def. Noelle Neron, 5-7, 6-2, 10-8
Madison LaPalomento-Emilee Kehr (WO) def. Olivia Lunemann-Sebrina Bradford, 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
Emma West-Angelina Lindenmuth (WO) def. Sam Twigg-Jasmine Hunt, 6-4, 5-7, 11-9
Records: Woodstown 11-3, Schalick 6-5.
Field hockey
Woodstown 6, Deptford 0
PENNSVILLE 6, SALEM 1: Kylie Harris scored a career-high three goals, Gracie Mease had two and Kendall Hoyt had three assists as the Eagles presented coach Lisa Duran with a victory on the eve of her induction into the PMHS Athletic Hall of Fame. Duran is being enshrined for her standout playing career, which included 11 varsity letters and several high honors in three sports before starring collegiately at Old Dominion. The win snapped a five-game losing streak.
SCHALICK 10, GLASSBORO 2: Luci Virga scored three goals, Ava Scurry had two goals and five assists and five others scored goals for the Cougars (9-6). Scurry had five assists in last year’s 11-0 South Jersey tournament opener against South Hunterdon.
Riverview Sports News 