Capra Saves Two Match Points to Capture Girls 14s Easter Bowl Championship

©Colette Lewis 2006
Palm Springs, CA--

There wasn't much drama in the two morning finals, but Beatrice Capra and Lilly Kimbell more than made up for that, when Capra saved two match points in the second set tiebreak to take the Easter Bowl girls 14s championship 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3.

The match didn't begin with much promise, as Kimbell, the third seed, rolled over the error-prone Capra, seeded fourth. The second set didn't start out auspiciously for Capra either, as she dropped her opening service game.

But Treecee, as she is called by family and friends, got her first glimmer of hope when she immediately broke Kimbell three straight times and moved to a 5-2 lead, finding the range on her penetrating groundstrokes and drawing on her comebacks at last year's Clay Courts for inspiration.

"I just told myself 'I've been down this far before and I won, and I can do it again,'" said the fourteen-year-old from Maryland. "I was down in like every match a match point and I came back."

That confidence probably came in handy when she failed to convert five set points at 2-5 and 5-3, leaving the tiebreak to decide the set. It was close from the outset, with neither player able to build a lead. At 6-5, Kimbell had a chance to end it, but put a backhand wide, then earned another match point when her backhand caught the line. But two errors from Kimbell later, it was Capra who converted, when she slammed a service winner to even the match.

During the ten-minute break between sets, Capra formulated a new plan of attack.

"In the previous sets I kept hitting it to her backhand," Capra said. "She was killing me on that, so in the third set I kept hitting to her forehand, and I guess it just broke down."

"My backhand is better than my forehand," Kimbell admitted. "It's more consistent. I just made too many unforced errors today."

Once Capra put the strategy in place it quickly produced the results she was hoping for and she grabbed a 3-0 lead to open the third set. But Kimbell, constantly encouraging herself with 'c'mons', drew even and Capra knew she had to bear down.

"I got a little nervous, but I told myself if I kept moving my feet, I could do it."

Whether it was with foot movement, sheer power, or errors by Kimbell, Capra didn't lose another game, earning her first gold ball to go with the silver one she took at the Winter National in January.

The girls 14s doubles champions are Tayler Davis and Cierra Gaytan-Leach, the second seeds, who came back to defeat unseeded Kate Fuller and Rachael Hart 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.