By Stephanie Pham & Sophie Vu
This past Tuesday, Sept. 27, the girl’s varsity tennis team played against Huntington Beach High School (HBHS) a week before their league starts. The Lady Barons wanted an opportunity to push their limits with the HBHS varsity tennis team with a final score of 7-11.
“We wanted to play competitive matches, HB is D1 with good depth, I knew they would push our lineup and we will learn a few things about ourselves,” head coach Harshul Patel said.
Despite the loss, there were many key players such as senior captains Rene Do and Melody Hom with juniors Katie Dang and Sophie Vu. Along with honorable mentions of the team’s singles line up: freshmen Kendra Ly and Jaslyn Nguyen, with sophomore Katelyn Nguyen.
Although they may have lost, they still had some well executed matches. Such as the team’s line one doubles team, Do and Vu, who won two out of three of their matches with scores of 6-2 their first round and 6-3 their second round.
“It really made me appreciate the mindset of one point at a time,” Do said.
They had an astonishing comeback after being 0-3 down in their second round against the Oilers’ line one.
Coach Patel said, “Rene and Sophie beat their number one after being 0-3 down. They fought hard to win the next six games and won that set 6-3. That was a huge win.”
At the same time, Hom and Dang won their second round match with a score of 6-2.
“Katie and I were proud to help contribute to the team with a win. After beating line one, we were able to boost our confidence for the rest of the matches and keep high spirits. We are still always trying to bring our best and improve,” Hom said.
As they continued to proceed through their rounds with confidence and determination, the Oilers kept coming back. Along with our singles matches, they were able to snatch three games off the Oiler’s line three. They had some really tough matches against their line one and two.
Despite the tough time, Ly was still in high spirits.
“I was proud of myself to be able to get one match today,” Ly said. “It raised my spirits a bit after I had lost my previous two and by a little bit it helped reassure me for my future games.”
Overall, our Lady Barons fought hard, with a really tight score compared to last year’s score against HB of 0-18. The team may have lost, but their spirit was still there. They kept supporting each other till the very end and held the same attitude moving into their next matches, especially with their league right around the corner.
“I love my team, I love the way they compete. I want them to be open minded when they are playing matches. Take charge, take risks, and improve our weaknesses. We will be working on our game for the next two months,” Patel said.
The team plays their first league match against Los Alamitos on Thursday, Oct. 6 at an away game.
