The girls’ varsity tennis team (14-7,5-5) grabbed a 5-2 win over Milpitas, despite high temperatures and sun.
The sun was an obstacle in today’s match as players from both teams lost the ball in the sun on serves or overheads. It also added to the fatigue of the players especially to No. 1 singles player Aashli Budhiraja (’14). Budhiraja played a long and hard-fought first set against Milpitas No. 1 Christi Tain. But, Budhiraja prevailed winning the first set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. Up 4-3 in the second set, Budhiraja became a little upset with some of the close calls her opponent was making. After missing a slice backhand just wide, Budhiraja settled down for a deuce point. Budhiraja found herself in trouble as Tain took advantage of a weak shot but failed to get by Budhiraja who reared back and fired a backhand right at Tain making the score 5-3. Budhiraja went on to win the second set 6-4.
No. 2 singles Felicia Wang (’14) had no trouble in defeating Lina Ye of Milpitas 6-1, 6-3.
No. 3 and 4 singles players Caroline Nore (’14) and Samantha Dewees (’14) found the sun an impediment to their matches. Nore dropped her first set 2-6 to Milpitas No. 3 player Kristen Buchanan who looked strong and confident throughout the match. Nore could not find her rhythm losing the second set 1-6. Dewes also lost her first and second set 2-6.
Despite two losses the three doubles won their matches with no major dilemmas. Thus, the Paly girls puled through and to Coach Harader’s approval, added another win to their league and overall record.
“I feel great.” coach Harader said about the teams performance today. “The team is riding high right now going into the final week of the season, SCVAL championships and CCS.”
Going forward, coach Harader and the team feels confident that they can beat their next opponent, Lynbrook, on Tuesday, Oct. 23 at Lynbrook.
