In two match-ups that were rematches from the final round of the regular season, minor premier Echuca 1 secured a comfortable victory over LBU 11-92 to 2-55.
LBU was able to square the ledger at one set each in the men’s singles, with Harrison Condliffe securing a dominant 6-1 win over Echuca’s Jack Byrne.
It was across all doubles formats where Echuca proved too strong, winning every men’s and women’s doubles set while taking the mixed three sets to one.
The main separator between the sides came in the women’s doubles, as Echuca won the games tally across the four sets 32-13, with Roxanne Dicketts featuring in two strong wins, 8-1 with Charlotta Groenewald and 8-2 with Celine Joyce.
Many of the men’s and mixed doubles sets were competitive and Condcliffe teamed up with Katie Condcliffe to take LBU’s only other set in the match against Dicketts and Todd Charnas.
Meanwhile, for Echuca, Hugh Melville and Steve Rawlings performed best in the men’s doubles with an 8-1 win, while Byrne and Mia Aston cruised to an 8-3 victory in the mixed pairings.
Echuca 2 v Rochester
Echuca 2 was pushed hard by defending champion Rochester in the other semi-final, but ultimately proved too strong in a 9-86 to 4-61 victory.
Rochy, coming in as the underdog, provided a scare to the much more fancied Echuca 2 by taking both men’s singles sets, with Jacob Grieves and Harry Crilly winning 6-0 and 6-4 respectively.
Echuca 2 would show its quality across the doubles formats, taking nine of the 11 sets on offer.
The men’s doubles were tight, as Grieves and Lachlan Smith teamed up to take a set for Rochester, but Echuca took the other two with victories for the Chris Milnes-Shaun Trice pairing and the Phil Higgins-Chris Potter pairing.
Such was the hard-fought nature of these three sets that Echuca 2 only just won the games tally 22-21.
The women’s and mixed doubles would ultimately prove the difference between the two sides, as Echuca 2 took three of the four women’s sets, as Tanya Godfrey and Lucy Higgins stood out by taking their set 8-3.
The mixed doubles would be a clean sweep for Echuca 2, which took each set in a dominant fashion, which included a perfect 8-0 win for Potter and Madeline O'Nial, and ultimately accounted for the 25-game difference between the sides, Echuca 2 winning the games tally 32-8 across these four sets.
Both Echuca sides will now prepare for the decider, which was the expected match-up after both sides dominated the regular season by finishing in the top two.
Echuca 1 won two of the three meetings between the sides in the regular season, taking the most recent match-up a month ago, but Echuca 2 did defeat its counterparts in round 6.
The all-Echuca grand final will take place on Saturday, March 21, with play scheduled to begin from 1pm.
