Junior varsity doubles sweep for the win

Going into doubles play, the Charleston junior varsity tennis team and Casey-Westfield were tied 3-3. To win, the team needed to win at least two of the three doubles.

The doubles team did just that and more, sweeping all three matches to win the meet 6-3 on Tuesday night. All matches were played as an eight-game pro set.

“The girls played well this evening due in large part because of their hunger to win,” coach Eric Bright said. “Their last two meets had been losses and they didn’t like that, so they redoubled their efforts to bring in the win.”

All three doubles teams won by at least three games, with the doubles team of Elena Davis and Sheeva Izadi giving up only two games. This was a payback game for Izadi, who faced her opponent Sarah Purcell in singles play and lost 8-6.

In other singles action, Alyssa Thomason was the only one of the top three singles players to win a match, beating her opponent 8-2. This was also the score of Mareike Eydt-Beebe’s game.

The person that caught Bright’s eye, though, was Michaela Cline. Not only did she win her match 8-0, but Bright said her serve was working better during the game.

“Her slice serve was spinning into the body of her opponent forcing many errors,” he said.

The Charleston junior varsity team (3-2) finishes up their season next Tuesday at home against Teutopolis.

Singles:
1. Maci Collins (CW) def Zoe Roberts (CHS) 8-2
2. Alyssa Thomason (CHS) def Carley Edwards (CW) 8-2
3. Acantha Gard (CW) def Elena Davis (CHS) 8-5
4. Sarah Purcell (CW) def Sheeva Izadi (CHS) 8-6
5. Mareike Eydt-Beebe (CHS) def Cloe Daugherty (CW) 8-2
6. Michaela Cline (CHS) def Brandi Kemper (CW) 8-0

Doubles:
1. Thomason/Eydt-Beebe (CHS) def Collins/Gard (CW) 8-4
2. Davis/Izadi (CHS) def Daugherty/Purcell (CW) 8-2
3. Cline/Haugh (CHS) def Moore/Bollinger (CW) 8-5

Tennis match against Rantoul rained out

Monday night’s varsity tennis match against Rantoul was canceled due to rain, coach Eric Bright said.

The team is trying to schedule a make-up match against the team, but they have no date set yet for it.

The varsity team will resume action on Thursday when they host Teutopolis, while the junior varsity will host Casey tonight at 4:15 p.m.

Boys run away with Mattoon Invite

Charleston boys’ cross country took first at the Mattoon Invitational at Lake Land College on Thursday.

Junior Jason Lord finished first for Charleston with a time of 17:24.90. The boys finished with 52 points, finishing only two points ahead of second-place Mattoon in the first invite hosted by the Greenwave since 1993.

Senior Matt McElwee ran his first race since injuring his hamstring in the Springfield Lanphier Tour on Sept. 13. McElwee finished seventh overall with a time of 17:36.25.

Before the race, McElwee said he would start off slow and gradually adjust as the race went on, depending on how his leg felt.

“First mile and a half, I was feeling great,” McElwee said. “(Coach Derrick Landrus) told me no kicking-out of the start, so I started out behind. All in all, I’ll take it for a comeback race.”

Coach Landrus said he was very excited by the outcome of the race.

“Our times were good, from what I’ve heard,” Landrus said. “The guys have had to make up a lot without (McElwee and senior Aaron Smith), and I’m very proud of them.”

Smith was still sidelined due to a hip injury also sustained at the Springfield Lanphier Tour. Landrus said Smith should be able to race again in a couple weeks.

Mattoon boys took second and third spots, but finished only two points behind the Trojans.

“I felt like we had an advantage being at home,” said Mattoon boys’ head coach Eric Haslett. “With some of the boys, I talked to them about finding a spot in the race where they have a surge.” According to Haslett, the strategy seemed to work for the boys.

Teutopolis junior Jared Summers took first overall, clocking in at 16:32.50. T-town finished third overall with 63 points.

In the girls’ meet, Charleston took last with 131 points.

“We’re just trying to drop times a little bit, improve a little bit,” said girls’ coach Brad Oakley.

Oakley said a point in the race where runners were forced to what was almost a complete stop as a contributing factor in low times not just for Charleston, but also for all schools.

Oakley said senior Adrienne Mowan ran extremely well, especially coming off a knee injury.

Mowan finished first for the Trojans with a time of 23:05.05, coming in 17th overall.

She said she is looking to improve on her last mile, saying it’s “worsened.”

St. Anthony freshman Liz Wortman dominated the race, taking first with a time of 20:19.10.

St. Anthony finished second with 60 points, a scarce 19 points behind first-place Newton. Rantoul girls listed incomplete with only one finisher.

The Trojans will travel to Robinson next Thursday for the Robinson Invitational at 4:30 p.m.

Halfback’s touchdown pass rallies Charleston past Robinson

What looked like a simple run play turned out to be so much more. With only 1: 52 left on the first half game-clock Charleston halfback Kody French took a toss to the left, ran about ten steps towards the sideline and unloaded a deep spiral down the left sideline to a streaking Trenell Bell. Bell cradled the pass in and ran it the rest of the way in for a touchdown.

This play would give the Trojans a 22-21 lead that they would not relinquish en route to a 38-27 win.

” We have been working on that play for awhile,” said Charleston head coach Jeff Miller. ” We had run some some tosses early in the game to see how much the corners were biting and we noticed they were playing very aggressive. We felt it was a good time to take a chance because of their aggressiveness and fortunately it paid off for us.”

Charleston’s game plan began to change when starting quarterback Austin Heise left the game early in Charleston’s first offensive series. with an apparent ankle injury. After the injury, running back Cris Creek took a quick hand off up the middle for a gain of 33 yards. Creek’s run  was mainly attributed to the poor defensive tackling that Robinson displayed throughout the game.

Robinson assistant coach Joe Cunningham said,” we weren’t surprised that they (Charleston) wanted to come out and run the ball, we just didn’t do a very good job of tackling.”

Robinson would answer with a methodical 9 play-87 yard touchdown drive of their own. Robinson’s drive was entirely created by running the ball. Robinson continued the rushing attack on their next drive which ended  in another rushing touchdown. The two point conversion would succeed on a quarterback sneak. Robinson would enjoy lots of success in the first half running the ball for 198 yards on 17 carries, but in the second half the Maroon running game didn’t find any space, leading to only 34 yards on 13 carries.

Charleston coach Jeff Miller said,” We came out flat and all I told the team is that this is a game of emotion and we better start playing with some. We made the proper adjustments to the defense and we really played well on both sides of the ball in the second half.”

With Robinson now having the lead at 14-6 the Trojans went back to the running game. Halfbacks Kody French and Chris Creek would account for all the yards on the drive, ending in a Kody French dive for a touchdown. French would finish the game with 18 carries for 166 yards and a touchdown. French also had an interception and went 1-1 with a 59 yard touchdown pass. Fellow running back Chris Creek would also break the 100-yard mark with 13 carries for 117 yards and two touchdowns. Larry Welsh III also chipped in six carries for 20 yards and a touchdown.

French and Creek said the offensive linemen played ” spectacular.” ” It was difficult to run on the outside in the first half,” said French. Creek added,” they (Robinson) were a lot more disciplined than we expected.”

With the score now tied at 14, the Charleston defense would once again allow the Robinson offense to move the ball down field for a touchdown. The running game would again be the focal point of the drive, highlighted by a 43-yard toss play, that set up a quick fifteen yard touchdown pass. The extra point was good, leaving the score with Robinson ahead 21-14 with only 1:52 to go in the half.

On the second play of Charleston’s drive running back Kody French took a toss to the left and threw a deep pass to a streaking T.J. Bell for a touchdown. The two point conversion would be good on a fade route to Bell, thus leaving the score at 22-21. This would be the turning point in the game and Charleston would not look back.

Robinson coach Cunningham said,” those types of big plays tend to happen when you have a defense that is looking to stop the run first and defend the pass second.”

The Trojans would score on their first two drives of the second half. A 20-yard touchdown run by Chris Creek, followed by a short 2 yard touchdown run by Larry Welsh III would put the game out of reach.

The freshmen Charleston Trojans have now improved to 5-0 and will travel to meet the Salem Wildcats on Thursday, October 2 at 6:15 p.m.

CHS wins third in a row with victory over Olney HS

Charleston celebrates during its straight-set victory over Olney in high school volleyball.

Trailing 19-17, Charleston won the point and gained possession with senior middle back Stephanie Harper up to serve. Behind Harper’s serving CHS won five straight points, including two aces by Harper, making the score 23-19 before a serving error that made the score 23-20. Olney then went on to win three of the next four points before a tip by sophomore middle back Bri Roy-Rankin caught them out of position, falling to floor and giving CHS a win in the first set.

The second set started off quickly for the Lady Trojans as they won the first four points behind the serving of defensive specialist/libero Braddi Reed before a serving error made the score 4-1. Olney went on to win the next two points before CHS senior Megan Corrie notched a kill that made score 5-2. Olney then won three of the next five points to make the score 7-5. An Olney hitting error made the score 8-5 and gave Charleston the possession with Brandi Coffey coming up to serve.

Behind the serving of Coffey, the Lady Trojans went on to win the next seven points by way of four hitting errors by Olney, two aces by Coffey and a kill by Harper.

“She did an amazing job,” said coach Beth Anne Lancaster, speaking of Coffey. “She has an amazing float serve. We made a big run because Olney couldn’t pass her serves.”

After seven unanswered points behind the serving of Coffey, Olney coach Amanda Redman called a timeout so that they slow down Charleston’s momentum. The strategy worked, as the Tigers won the next four points before Harper smashed the ball down into the center of the court for her third kill of the game. After a CHS serving error, Bri Roy-Rankin made a play that was similar to the winning point of the first set, recognizing where the defense was and catching them out of position with another tip.

Charleston then went on to win seven of the next eight points, and eight of the next 12, on their way to winning the set 25-14.

Knowing where Olney’s weak blocks were was important to Coffey, who said that her favorite point was when she set up a good kill.

“Brandi did a great job of playing defense first and setting second,” said coach Lancaster.

After winning their last two conference games, at Mt. Zion on Tuesday and Olney on Thursday night, the Lady Trojans have improved their in conference record to 3-3. Their overall record has improved to 7-7.

Coach cancels tournament due to academics

The Charleston girls tennis coach is not having the team go to the Centennial Doubles Tournament in Springfield this Saturday due to academics.

“I try and emphasize to the girls that academics come first,” coach Eric Bright said. “Their first responsibility is to be a student, and then a tennis player. When you have tennis tournaments every weekend, for six weekends in a row, not only does it wear out the girls by the time we get to the important conference match, the Apollo Conference next weekend, and also sectionals, they’re beat down and haven’t had a weekend off, but they also don’t have time to catch up on homework or anything like that.”

At the Mattoon Tournament, Bright had said that he didn’t like the Centennial tournament because it was held at five different sites in Springfield.

The past two weekends, the Lady Trojans have played at the Casey Doubles Tournament and the Mattoon Tournament.

Bright also said he won’t have the team do have any extra practices this weekend, as the point of not going to the tournament was to give them a break and allow them to catch up on studies.

“Hopefully, they’re out hitting on their own because they love it and want to be out on the courts, but I’m not going to force anything,” he said.

The Lady Trojans will resume play on Monday at home against Rantoul at 4:30 p.m.

Junior varsity can’t capitalize off tiebreakers

Four times the Charleston junior varsity tennis team took Mattoon to a tiebreaker.

Four times that the team wasn’t able to finish on. The team lost at Mattoon on Thursday evening 7-2.

In singles play, both Sheeva Izadi and Mareike Eydt-Beebe had to play a tiebreaker. Izadi’s was a tiebreaker in the first set, while Eydt-Beebe’s was a third set tiebreaker. Eydt-Beebe held her opponent close throughout the tiebreaker, but finally lost it 11-9.

The only player to win in singles was Michaela Cline. She won in two straight sets, only giving up three games.

In doubles, two of the teams took their first set to a tiebreak game. While the team of Cline and Haugh were able to get five points against their opponents in the tiebreak, they weren’t able to finish them off and lost it 7-5.

The only doubles win came from Alyssa Thomason and Zoe Roberts, as they won 6-4, 6-2.

Even though they only won two matches this evening, coach Eric Bright was happy with their performance because they pushed Mattoon to their limits.

“They brought several sets to a seventh game due to a more aggressive style of play, especially at the net,” Bright said.

The varsity team continues action next Monday at home against Rantoul at 4:30 p.m.
Singles:
1. Hannah Osborne (M) def Zoe Roberts (C) 6-3, 6-4
2. Stephanie Fleishman (M) def Alyssa Thomason (C) 6-2, 6-4
3. Holly Hostetter (M) def Elena Davis (C) 6-3, 6-2
4. Shawna Davis (M) def Sheeva Izadi (C) 7-6 (7-3 in tiebreak), 6-3
5. Cheyenne Gardner (M) def Mareike Eydt-Beebe (C) 3-6, 6-3, 11-9 (third set played as a tiebreaker)
6. Michaela Cline (C) def Shavon Francie (M) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:
1. Thomason/Roberts (C) def Fleishman/Hostetter (M) 6-4, 6-2
2. Osborne/Davis (M) def Davis/Izadi (C) 7-6 (7-1 in tiebreak), 7-5
3. Francis/Gardner (M) def Cline/Haugh (C) 7-6 (7-5 in tiebreak), 6-3

Exhibition:
Mareike Eydt-Beebe (C) def Emily Rardin (M) 8-2

Freshmen Charleston Trojans vs Robinson Maroons: Game Preview

The freshmen Charleston Trojans are undefeated with a record of 4-0. Tonight they play host to the Robinson Maroons at 6:15 p.m.

The Trojans have enjoyed the benefits of a strong running game and a defense that has been allowing very few first downs. The running game has been a focus of the offense since the opening game of the season.  Running backs Kody French, Chris Creek, Jurgen Huddelston Smith, and Larry Welsh III have all shared carries for the Trojans. The success of the running game has allowed the defense to get plenty of rest and in return, the first string defense has only allowed nine points in the past two games. They also held the Newton Eagles to just four first downs (one by penalty) last week.

Trojans defensive coordinator Carl Wolf expects that the game will involve both teams trying to establish the running game early. ” Typically in the Apollo Conference the teams want to come and run the ball early,” said Wolf.

The Robsinson Maroons are coached by Terry Roche and play a base 4-3 defense.  With playing this style of defense there is a good chance that the Maroons will attempt to stack the line of scrimmage with linebackers and defensive backs in an attempt to slow down the Charleston running game.

Charleston tops Teutopolis

   A free kick tapped in by Joey Martinez was the only goal in Charleston’s win over Teutopolis Tuesday night.  The Trojans kept Teutopolis to just five total shots, one on target, the Charleston Times Courier reports.    Gunnar Brimner’s free kick was headed down by Quinn Hussey, and Martinez was there to follow it in to the net.  The Trojans play Mt. Zion at 6:30 Thursday before their Senior Night matchup with Danville on Saturday.

Charleston gives Newton first win of season

The Charleston girls tennis team lost their sixth straight match against Newton 6-3.

This is Newton’s first win of the year. They are 1-5 in match play, while Charleston is 1-6.

“I think Richardson summed it up after the meet when she said ‘We psyched ourselves out,’” coach Eric Bright said.

All three of Charleston’s wins came from singles play. Gretchen Richardson, Alysha Spencer and Kaitlin Nead each won their matches, although Richardson had to go to a 12 point tiebreak to win.

“Kaitlin Nead has looked amazing and continues to look amazing,” Bright said. “Alysha seems to have found her spot and found her grove today. Gretchen… her saying was ‘p.e. is kicking my butt.’ Coming off of a hard few days of p.e., they’re doing a running unit that’s really got their legs down. She fought back and came through in a tiebreaker.”

In Nead’s match, during the second set, her opponent was having trouble with her serving game. Three times in the third game she double faulted, and lost the fifth game due to a double fault.

Newton coach Pete Pasero said that some of the girls are having problems serving, and although they try to work on it, it often isn’t showing.

Once again, Zoe Roberts played the last varsity singles position today. Although she lost her match 6-4, 6-3, Bright said this might not be the only roster change this season.

“I talked about mixing up our two, three and four positions,” he said. “All three of those girls are fairly comparable. Rather than go by a strict ranking system and say ‘you’re two, you’re three and that’s the way it always is,’ I’d rather get girls in a position where they’re most likely going to win. So, yeah, I could see Ashley Miller moving up to two, or moving down to four, and the other girls changing places. It’s wherever they can find that sweet spot and do really well at. So we might change it up, but we’ll see.”

Doubles play is what hurt the Lady Trojans today, as they dropped all three matches.

“That’s unusual for us, we normally are better at doubles than singles,” Bright said.

Each doubles team was able to take their opponent to a seventh set in at least one of the sets, with Amanda Thomason and Richardson losing a 12 point tiebreaker 8-6.

The Lady Trojans have the rest of the week off to rest and practice before facing Rantoul on Monday at 4:15 p.m.

Singles:
1. Samantha Webb (N) def Amanda Thomason (C) 6-1, 4-6, (7-1 third set played as a tiebreaker)
2. Gretchen Richardson (C) def Rachel Frichtl (N) 3-6, 6-1 (7-5 third set played as a tiebreaker)
3. Kendra Will (N) def Ashley Miller (C) 6-2, 6-0
4. Alysha Spencer (C) def Lisa Frichtl (N) 6-1, 6-3
5. Kaitlin Nead (C) def April Webb (N) 6-0, 6-1
6. Jodie Rauch (N) def Zoe Roberts (C) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles:
1. Webb/Frichtl (N) def Miller/Spencer (C) 7-5, 7-5
2. Frichtl/Will (N) def Thomason/Richardson (C) 7-6, 3-6, (8-6 third set played as a tiebreaker)
3. Lindsey/Niemerg (N) def Nead/Nead (C) 6-2, 7-5

Exhibition:
Elena Davis (C) def Liz Frichtl (N) 8-4
Zoe Roberts (C) def Emily Stewart (N) 8-4
Alyssa Thomason/Mareike Eydt-Beebe (C) def Kaitlin Vahling/Nicole Stewart (N) 8-3