Lyndsay captures Section Cooke-off
| Saturday, Nov 07 2009 10:31 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Nov 07 2009 11:20 PM
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Chelby Cooke goes for a ball in her match against Lyndsay Cooke (not pictured) during the Central Section singles championship match at Redwood High School in Visalia on Saturday, November 7, 2009.
Lyndsay Cooke goes for a ball in her match against Chelby Cooke (not pictured) during the Central Section singles championship match at Redwood High School in Visalia on Saturday, November 7, 2009.
VISALIA -- It was perhaps inevitibale that Lyndsay Cooke's high school tennis career would end this way, and it was also bittersweet, physically exhausting and mentally taxing.
And all of it felt great to Cooke.
"It's a dream come true," she said. "I can't believe I'm standing here talking after having won."
Cooke beat her little sister, Chelby, in an all-Bakersfield Christian Central Section singles final, 6-4, 7-5 Saturday at Visalia-Redwood High School.
This was after Chelby Cooke, a sophomore, took out Redwood's two-time defending champion Gabrielle Gatewood in the semifinals. Gatewood won the first set 6-4 but became increasingly uncomfortable in the second set before retiring with a back injury down 4-2 in the second set.
"She took out Gatewood, which I've never been able to do," Lyndsay Cooke said. "So I owe a lot to her."
Lyndsay beat Garces freshman Gracie Jacobs 6-1, 7-5 in the other semifinal, setting up what had been long anticipated but never played competitively -- a battle between the Cooke sisters, this one for all the marbles.
"I kept saying I felt like it was going to eventually come down to this," BCHS coach Frank Thiessen said.
Chelby Cooke played aggressively from the start, putting her big sister on the run with great pace and steep angles on her shots. But Lyndsay Cooke -- who had lost to Gatewood in each of the past two finals -- hung in there, and eventually wore down her familiar opponent.
"She's just very patient, and that's one of my problems," Chelby Cooke said. "I like the points to be quick, and she'd prolonged them. And I'm just exhausted."
Lyndsay Cooke was behind early in both sets but battled back to win key games in each. And with every key point came long rallies with big forehands and sneaky lobs sending both sisters to the far corners of the court.
"I knew I had to play my best tennis game; I had no choice in the matter," Lyndsay Cooke said. "... The tennis she forced me to play was amazing. I didn't know I could play that well. I think we're pretty much tied because she did so well."
That earned Lyndsay Cooke the only missing piece from her one of the best tennis careers the Central Section has ever seen. Cooke finished this year 35-1 and was 128-4 over her four years. She said she hopes to attend college in New England, perhaps Boston University, and play either tennis or soccer.
Her final high school tennis win was the most difficult, and that wasn't just because Chelby came into the match 35-0 this year and 67-1 in her career.
"This was the hardest tennis match of my life, for sure," Lyndsay Cooke said. "... When we went up for the racket spin (to determine who would serve first), we were like, 'This is just weird. It's like out of a dream.'"
But with mom Beth Cooke looking on and cheering good points from both of her daughters, the girls played a high-quality match won by the one who was perhaps more desperate. This was Lyndsay Cooke's last chance at a title after she lost a match point as a sophomore en route to a three-set defeat and came up short again last year. She withdrew from her semifinal match against Gatewood with illness as a freshman.
"She's tried for four years," Thiessen said. "And in her final year, to accomplish it, it's always a great thing.
"If you go in our gym, you'll see that there's banners up there (for each individual section champion). ... Those will be up there for a lifetime. Sometimes kids don't realize what they accomplish, but those names will be up there for the rest of their lives. But they're both talented young ladies, and they deserve it."
Chelby Cooke will likely return next year as the section's favorite after her semifinal upset of Gatewood.
Bakersfield Christian's doubles team of Lily Schuler and Carolyn Stevens placed fourth, losing 6-4, 6-2 to Fresno-Bullard's Pookie Gonzalez-Ashley Valdez in the semifinals and then 6-4, 7-6 (4) in the third-place match to Fresno-San Joaquin Memorial's Michelle Frea-Robin Draper.
Gonzalez-Valdez won the doubles title 6-1, 6-0 over Clovis-Buchanan's top-seeded team of Erin Carlson and Jessica Wang.
"I didn't want to win that way," Chelby Cooke said. "But she doesn't know how to play when she's losing. I thought if I get could get up a break that she wouldn't know what to do and she'd break down. And that's exactly what happened."
With Gatewood unable to play, Jacobs took third by default.
