Spring Creek is Carolina champion

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 7, 2008 1:46 PM

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Imagine having a mouth-watering steak, a steaming baked potato with melted butter and a salad sitting on your table.

A guest walks in and tries to take half of your dinner.

Do you let them?

Spring Creek head women's tennis coach Robert Jones presented that scenario to his team before Monday afternoon's regular-season finale against North Johnston. He knew if the Gators were hungry enough, they'd fight to keep the whole meal.

They feasted like queens.

The No. 3 doubles of Jana Kutsch-Lauren Player earned the match-clinching point as Spring Creek seized its second consecutive Class 1-A Carolina Conference championship with a 6-3 decision over the Panthers. It's the fifth title overall in the program's eight-year history.

North Johnston (9-3 overall, 9-3 Carolina) ended up tied for second place with Ayden-Grifton. The teams will flip a coin at today's conference tournament to determine the league's No. 2 representative to the N.C. High School Athletic Association dual-team playoffs.

"We pretty much won ugly today in my opinion ... just gutted it out," said Jones. "We knew North Johnston was going to be hungry trying to win their first conference title in school history. We had to hold them off and we were barely good enough to do it.

"We knew we were going to take their best shot and we got it."

Spring Creek triumphed in four singles matches.

Top-seeded Jamie Johnson finished 10-0 in regular-season play with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Amber Weaver. Fourth-seeded Rachel Lewis (11-1), German exchange student Jana Kutsch (12-0) and sixth-seeded Lauren Player (10-1) also won in straight sets.

Jones consider Lewis' match pivotal toward the outcome.

Lewis won a third-set tiebreaker 14-12 in the teams' previous meeting, but she didn't need it this time. One of five seniors in the Gators' lineup, Lewis never lost her composure after she fell behind 3-2 in the opening set.

"Rachel has been the anchor all year as far as trying to get a win out of the middle of the lineup," said Jones. "(Kara Pittman) was frustrating her keeping the ball in play and Rachel wasn't really moving to a lot of balls."

Lewis' attitude changed when she took a 4-3 lead. She won eight of the next 11 games to close out the match 6-4, 6-2.

"She made Pittman hit a few more balls and that made a difference," said Jones.

In doubles, Kutsch-Player grabbed an early two-game lead and kept that advantage throughout their 8-4 conquest of the Panthers' Caroline Gerrell-Jessica Littleton. The No. 2 tandem of Best-Pittman rallied from a 7-4 deficit to win 9-8, including 7-2 in the tiebreaker, over Jordan Brown-Kara Pittman.

The Gators (11-1, 11-1) will host an opening-round, NCHSAA dual-team match on Oct. 14 against an undetermined opponent. The Carolina Conference tournament begins at 2 p.m. today at Herman Park.

"It's great for the girls, especially all the seniors we have, to go out on a high like this," said Jones. "I am proud of their effort. North Johnston has always had a bunch of determined athletes no matter the sport, and they're going to fight you until the end.

"No matter what happens in dual teams, we've had a great season."

And a feast to remember.

Spring Creek 6

North Johnston 3

Singles: No. 1 Jamie Johnson (SC) d. Amber Weaver 6-2, 6-1; No. 2 Sarah Wood (NJ) d. Ivey Best 6-1, 6-0; No. 3 Jordan Brown (NJ) d. Jessica Pittman 6-1, 6-0; No. 4 Rachel Lewis (SC) d. Kara Pittman 6-4, 6-2; No. 5 Jana Kutsch (SC) d. Caroline Gerrell 6-1, 6-0; No. 6 Lauren Player (SC) d. Kelly Sanders 6-0, 6-2.

Doubles: No. 1 Weaver-Wood (NJ) d. Johnson-Lewis 8-0; No. 2 Best-Pittman (SC) d. Brown Pittman 9-8 (2); No. 3 Kutsch-Player (SC) d. Gerrell-Jessica Littleton 8-4.

Records: Spring Creek 11-1 overall, 11-1 Carolina 1-A Conference; North Johnston 9-3, 9-3.