The girls’ tennis team suffered another 4-3 loss to rival Monta Vista on Oct. 25 on the team’s senior day, the last home game of the league season.

“I was a little disappointed because we had a pretty good chance, but it was a close match,” No. 1 singles player senior and co-captain Crystal Yen said.

Coach Tom Uyehara echoed Yen’s sentiments and was disappointed regarding the loss, but was pleased with the girls’ overall performance.

“We played our best, but obviously there are various improvements [to be made],” he said. “We had some opportunities, but we kind of squandered those opportunities. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to play [Monta Vista] one more time down the road at CCS.”

Yen won 6-1, 6-1 over opponent junior Wendi Kong. No. 2 singles player sophomore Kalyani Narayan won a close match 7-6, 7-5 over opponent junior Jody Law. The No. 3 doubles team of senior Tiffany Tu and junior Evaline Ju won 6-3, 6-3.

No. 3 singles player junior Niharika Bedekar and No. 4 singles player freshman Smita Sabada both dropped their first sets but gained a lead in their second sets before their opponents freshman Aiswarya Sankar and sophomore Shwetha Bharadwaj came back to win 6-4, 7-5 and 7-6, 7-6 respectively.

The No. 2 doubles team of junior Corianna Posadas and freshman Arathi Sabada played a tough first set but eventually lost 7-5, 6-1.

“I felt like Arathi [Sabada] and I tried our best, but our opponents [sophomore Sabrina Mui and freshman Angella Qian] played to our weaknesses,” Posadas said.

The girls had won 5-2 over Gunn on Oct. 18, 7-0 over Leland in a non-league match on Oct. 19, and 6-1 over Lynbrook on Oct. 20.

The team now has a 16-3 overall record (10-2 in league) in preparation for SCVAL (Santa Clara Valley Athletic League) individual matches on Nov. 1 and 2. Yen and Bedekar will be playing in the singles tournament.

The new format of three singles players and three doubles teams playing in round-robin style will debut in CCS.

“I can see the advantages for it, but I definitely see the disadvantages of it,” Uyehara said. “I think it’s going to be complicated and adds a lot of unneeded stress on the coaches and teams.”
The team itself will have to make some adjustments for CCS, in which players only play one set. “I mean normally we like to take our time, and now we’re going to have to get out of games fast,” Uyehara said.

The first round of CCS matches begins Nov. 8, but the team will start in the second round on Nov. 9. Saratoga will receive either the second or third seed for CCS depending on where Archbishop Mitty is seeded. Monta Vista will become the first seed.

Uyehara still has high expectations for the team, which are two-time defending CCS champions and defending CIF NorCal champions.

“I think this team can definitely do [well],” he said. “It should be fine, and we should have a really good chance of pulling out.”