Sisters lead in wet win

WAURN PONDS has continued its strong start to the Tennis Geelong Summer Mixed competition, defeating Geelong Lawn 6-37 to 0-14 on Saturday.

Led by Nicole Mullen, the Ponds began well with 6-0 and 6-4 wins before bringing up 6-1 and 6-3 wins in the middle two sets.

With match points assured, the home side then produced a 6-0 onslaught via Mikaela Mullen and Jayson Tomicic, as Nicole Mullen and Tom Ennor fought their way to a 7-6 victory to make it a clean sweep.

Waurn Ponds captain Mullen said, despite the scoreline, conditions and wily opponents meant it was a tough afternoon.

“It was very wet and very windy, so it wasn’t the best conditions. The ball can skid through when the courts are wet, so that makes it difficult, and where our courts are it is so open,” Mullen said.

“So it is so windy and when the balls fly everywhere, it is horrible. With the older teams though, they are very crafty, and they don’t like to hit the harder ball, they like to slice it or chip it in.

“You just have to try to adapt to it, which can be hard, but we don’t like to overthink it. We know we can’t go all out or else we will make a lot of mistakes with the balls coming through a lot slower.”

The Mullen sisters are continuing a family tradition at Waurn Ponds, with mum Jo serving as the club president.

Nicole Mullen said the team they had assembled had been together since juniors.

“We’ve been in Section 1 for a while with the same group of people,” she said. “We have been playing for about three or four seasons but we did juniors together, so it has been a long time.”

Waurn Ponds will next travel to Torquay to take on Surf Coast White.