Senior Captain and Singles No. 1 Katie Ho (’17) prepares for a forehand return. Photo provided by Jennifer Nguyen.by Aozora Ito, Sports Editor
Last Friday, the Barons varsity girls tennis beat Long Beach Poly with a score of 11-7. With the absence of Hanh Pham (’17), a two-year consecutive Sunset League Champion and the No. 1 singles player of Fountain Valley, their victory was a heavily significant one in setting the team’s atmosphere for the first match of their season against Edison next Thursday.
“It was fun playing against different leveled doubles teams from Long Beach Poly and being able to test out new strategies,” said Brianna Lau (’17), a No.2 doubles player.
Some of the key players were Senior Captain Katie Ho (’17), who played No. 1 singles in the place of Pham, winning all three of her sets, and No. 1 doubles players Victoria Nguyen (’18) and Senior Captain Clarissa Htay (’17) also winning three sets: 6-3, 6-1 and 6-1.
One notable play happened during the third round of doubles No. 1 when after a few rallies of lobs with heavy top spins against Long Beach Poly, Nguyen finished the point with a powerful overhead, winning a game for the Barons.
Other players showed outstanding performances as well. Although No. 3 singles Stephani Hernandez (’17) lost the first round, she grasped a win in the second round with the score of 6-4. Doubles No. 2 Aozora Ito (’18) and Lau won two sets out of three with 6-0, 3-6 and 6-3.
In addition, Kayla Korhonen (’17) and Jane Nguyen (’17) won the first two rounds with the scores of 6-4 and 6-1—unfortunately however, Korhonen had to be subbed out for the third round due to a light injury on her left foot.
With this win, the Barons are ready for the first match of their season against the Edison Chargers next Thursday.
