On Thursday, girls tennis won big against the Sequoia Ravens. M-A won five out of seven games, and was triumphant in singles and doubles competition alike.
M-A’s two strongest singles players, junior Tessa Ellingson and sophomore Eva Chow, kicked things off with decisive 6-0, 6-0 wins each. Chow attributes her win to her tournament experience. She said, “I had great focus on the court today.”
Following this was another comfortable win by senior Meena Alvi who won 6-3, 6-1. Meena’s play strategy entailed, “keeping my shots consistent and moving my opponent away from the net.”
Shortly after these wins was the nailbiter of the singles match-ups featuring number four singles player, M-A junior Holly Cheung. Cheung won 6-1 and lost 6-7, forcing a tie-breaker match. Cheung suffered a tough 10-8 loss against her opponent in the third set.
M-A doubles players also found success at home on Thursday. Number one doubles team, seniors Sienna Aylaian and Jasmine Hou, were lights out in a solid 6-0, 6-0 performance.
Aylaian loves leading the team and said, “Our key to success was having fun and being consistent.” Her partner Hou expanded on their game strategy, “We did a good job of putting away points rather than having long and exhausting points. I was trying to poach more and attack at the net so it felt rewarding to hit good volleys and finish the point.”
Freshman Marissa Hou and sophomore Hailey Hintze played a close match and pulled off a doubles win 6-3, 6-3. Hou hit an unreachable cross court shot, stacking up points for M-A. Hintze said, “We started off rough and were down by a bit but came back quickly with our consistent playing.” Hou added, “We were down the first two games but as we calmed down we pulled ourselves together and came back for a win.”
The last doubles match ended with disappointment on the court as number three doubles, junior Sophia Jobst and junior Nia Sadrzadeh, battled hard but suffered a 4-6, 3-6 loss.
After winning 5 out of the 7 matches, M-A girls’ tennis has a lot of momentum and looks forward to facing the Woodside Wildcats on Tuesday.
