Girls’ tennis team falls in CCS quarterfinal round to Menlo

Players await the anouncements of lineups earlier in the year.

After finishing second in the De Anza League behind undefeated Monta Vista, the girls’ tennis team entered CCS as the fifth seed. They lost 12-6 to Menlo, the fourth seed, on Nov. 9 after winning 11-7 over Palo Alto on Nov. 7.

The team had to switch up doubles teams due to the round robin CCS format of play, where each team has three singles players and three doubles teams. Each singles player on one team plays one set with regular scoring against each of the singles players on the other team. The same applies for doubles teams.

Former No. 4 singles player sophomore Arathi Sabada joined with No. 1 doubles player senior Cori Posadas to form the new No. 1 doubles team. Former No. 1 doubles player senior Amy Jan teamed up with No. 2 doubles player senior Evaline Ju for the No. 2 doubles team. The No. 3 doubles team of sophomore Sonal Pai and freshman Shaya Nikfar remained the same.

Coach Florin Marica praised the team’s performance despite the coaching change in the middle of the season and the switching of doubles teams.

“We struggled in the beginning to find the right formula for the rest of the season,” he said. “That was the hardest part, to find the right formula for the team. The last couple of matches, I saw [the girls] finally played together, and it came out well.”

Menlo also switched around doubles players from when the two teams played on Sept. 5 in Saratoga’s first match of the season. Menlo had won 7-0. Marica believed this early loss had affected the Saratoga girls’ confidence levels going into the CCS match.

“We made the mistake of going into the season with a loss of 7-0,” he said. “We shouldn’t play those matches at the beginning of the season. I talked to the girls, and they said, ‘All right, we cannot beat them,’ even on the day of the match. On the court, it was a different story. From the outside, I didn’t see a big difference. We actually had a chance.”

Pai and Nikfar lost a close set by two points in the tiebreaker against Menlo’s No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Helena Ong and Sadie Bronk. Arathi Sabada and Posadas also lost in a tiebreaker 7-6(1) to the No. 2 doubles team of seniors Christine Kvamme and Sam Hoag. A total of four set tiebreakers were played against Menlo.

All three singles players, junior Kalyani Narayan, captain senior Niharika Bedekar and sophomore Smita Sabada, won against junior Christine Eliazo but lost to sophomore Elizabeth Yao and senior Giannina Ong.

Against Palo Alto, the singles players faced trouble against SCVAL singles winner and No. 1 player junior Aashli Budhiraja but won three sets off their No. 3 singles player junior Samantha Dewees.

The team ended the season with a league record of 10-2 and an overall record of 13-7.

“This past season was a wonderful experience,” senior Kimberly Chou said. “I was able to make new friends, and spend a lot of time making new memories with the team.”

The girls fell short of matching past achievements, as Saratoga had won CCS in 2009 and 2010 and reached the finals in 2011. Yet Bedekar, who has played on the team for four years, says the results should not be compared.

“With the team we had this year, I think we played our hearts out, and so I am very proud of the way we did,” she said.