The Southern Lakes tennis team took its 15th straight Southern League title in Dunedin yesterday.
Lakes had to defend a 7-5 first-round win from Queenstown in November and was able to repeat that score in Dunedin against Otago.
It was largely a contest of two halves, with the visitors dominating the top half through Peter Hartono, Perry Crockett, Emilia Price and Felicity Oxnevad, while Otago showed more depth to control the bottom half through Paddy Ou, Ryan Eggers, Charlotte Booth and Rileigh Fields.
With the singles tied at 4-4, the challenge ended when Otago dropped both women’s doubles. Charlotte Booth, a former Auckland junior rep, had earlier shown grit to outlast the experienced Suma Ito 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 to keep Otago hopes alive.
Ou and Eggers had unbeaten weekends and combined well to claim the top doubles against Mark Milburn and Hartono in two close sets, but it was not enough.In the other Sunday tie, North Otago reversed the first-round result, beating Lakes B 6-6 (13 sets to 12).
On Saturday in the first two rounds, Otago A took all 12 rubbers against Southern Lakes B and beat North Otago A 9-3. Southern Lakes A beat North Otago A 8-4 and beat its own B team 9-1, with two unplayed because of weather.
The feature was the contributions of veterans Belinda Hirst and schoolgirls MacKenzie Phillips and Emma White to the tally for perennial wooden spooner North Otago when it met Otago.
Hirst’s battling 7-6 in the third-set win over former junior international Ellis was especially meritorious, as she combined deft placements and subtle variations that did not allow her younger opponent to settle on her return to match play. Phillips and White picked up consolation rubbers in the lower order.
The Division 2 title went to Otago B, which beat Southland A 7-5 after losing the first round in Oamaru in November on countback.
