Junior, Charisse Vu, executes a strong serve to start the rally. Photo by Vivian Le.by Vivian Yenson, Staff Writer
On Tuesday, Barons girls’ varsity tennis faced off against Marina High School. A second significant injury plagued the team, but regardless, the girls came out victorious with a score of 10-8.
The Barons’ no. 1 doubles team, seniors Aozora Ito and Sharon Chen, won all three of their sets, while the no. 1 singles player, senior Victoria Nguyen, won two of her sets. The other two doubles teams, Charisse Vu & Kaylee Tran and Tina Nguyen & Jasmine Nguyen, each won two sets. Christina Yu won her final singles set, giving the team the ultimate win of 10-8.
“My final match was tough, but I focused on keeping my head in the game. I’m always a bit nervous knowing that every game and match matters, but I just try to focus on one point at a time. After the win, I felt great because all of my hard work paid off. I’m also glad we were able to win the match as a team because it showed that our teamwork and effort can pull us through these tough matches,” said senior Christina Yu.
The girls had a rough start this season with their no. 1 singles player, senior Hanh Pham, as well as their no. 3 doubles player, junior Ivy Tran, out on the sidelines due to an ankle and back injury, respectively. As a result, Harshul Patel, the head tennis coach, brought a Junior Varsity singles player, junior Viviane Le, onto the varsity lineup and switched up the no. 2 and 3 doubles teams. Also, the team had just come off of an unfortunate loss against Edison last Thursday, as they lost the tiebreaker at 9-9 by only four games. However, their hard work and practice paid off through a victory in this last match.
“We’re working hard and practicing hard. In the end, we’re just trying to get as many games as we can and play our best right now. It’s a tough situation, but we’re trying to compete and get the most out of it. At the end of the day, I’m proud of my team. We’re down, but we’re not out. We’ll continue fighting,” said Coach Patel.
The team’s next match will be against Los Alamitos at Los Alamitos High School this Thursday.
