Hewitt and McElhinny Capture WDSA MetroSquash Open by Rob Dinerman Dateline May 8th
--- In a praiseworthy display of patience, prudence and precision,
second seeds Steph Hewitt and Tarsh McElhinny handily captured the
$14,000 MetroSquash Open, hosted this past weekend by the Onwentsia
Club in suburban Chicago and benefiting MetroSquash, the inner-city
youth organization that has served the Chicago community so well for
more than a decade. After dropping the opening game of their semifinal
with U. S. National Doubles finalists Gina Stoker and Kelsey Engman
(who had earlier won three-love over Joyce Davenport and Beth
WInstanley), Hewitt and McElhinny raced through the 15-6, 8 and 11
remainder, then bettered even that tally in their 15-7, 8 and 9
final-round win over Heidi Mather and Victoria Simmonds.
By far
the most competitive match of the six-team tournament (with the top two
seeds given first-round byes) occurred Friday evening in the top-half
semi between the Mather/Simmonds pairing (which had debuted with a
straight-set quarterfinal win over Tara Mullins and Dawn Gray) and No.
1 seeds Narelle Krizek and her first-time partner Karen Jerome. The
latter had suffered a fluke injury to her right knee in a pro-am match
early that morning when she accidentally bashed her kneecap, causing
swelling and necessitating a trip to an orthopedist’s office to have
fluid drained and a cortisone shot administered. Notwithstanding this
treatment, Jerome’s mobility was visibly reduced, as was her ability as
this match progressed to set up on the leg to hit the front-court shots
that under normal circumstances are the best part of her game.
Krizek
therefore had to do a lot of covering of the front-left, throwing the
team’s court balance askew and leaving open spaces for Mather and
Simmonds to exploit. It is a tribute to Jerome’s grit and Krizek’s
deadly shot-making (including rolling three-walls in front of Mather
and applying her piercing shallow rails to major effect) that the duo
was able both to force a fifth game and to push it all the way to the
brink. After falling behind early on, they rallied to 12-14, whereupon
a rare Krizek tin allowed a relieved Mather and Simmonds to escape with
a 15-7 13-15 15-12 12-15 15-12 victory and a ticket to the final.
But there
was no escaping the McElhinny/Hewitt onslaught in the ensuing final,
which was held Sunday morning after all of Saturday was devoted to
pro-am matches to accommodate a larger-than-usual turn-out of amateur
participants. McElhinny’s sharpshooting --- possibly abetted by a full
recent WDSA schedule that has enabled her to groove her front-court
game, rather than having to get the rust out after gaps in the
schedule, there being no doubles courts in Oklahoma City, where she is
currently based --- was on fire, especially her backhand
reverse-corner, and Hewitt was scoring as well. But more important was
the way they first established front-court position, consistently
getting their opponents pinned to the back of the court and THEN
attacking the open ball with a reverse, drop or three-wall. There was
nothing that Mather or Simmonds could do to stem the momentum, as
Hewitt and McElhinny surged unimpeded to the finish line.
The tour
resumes with a big event, the Turner Cup, which for the first time will
be held outside of New York City, at the Westchester Country Club in
Rye, from May 16-19, with both Krizek/Suzie Pierrepont and
Hewitt/Meredeth Quick, winners of this event in 2008 and 2012
respectively, among the top-four seeds.
