Girls’ tennis: With win over Matadors, Toga girls tie for first place

Heads turned back and forth as the girls’ tennis team intently watched the deciding match of their game against rival Monta Vista on Oct. 17. On match point, No. 1 doubles sophomores Ai Marie  and Yu Karen Asai stood in ready position as their opponent served. The team burst into cheers as the Asai’s won the point, securing a crucial victory over the team’s longtime rival.

The 9-1 girls' tennis team’s 4-3 win against Monta Vista has put them in first place in the upper league, tied with the Matadors. The team prevailed with freshman Caitlin Ju winning her match at No. 3 singles, and strong doubles pairs consisting of sophomores Ai Marie and Yu Karen Asai, Shireen Haghshenas and Meera Rachamallu, and Allison Lin and freshman Kelly Hsu.  

"The game went well because we were all really pumped up because Monta Vista is our biggest rival,” sophomore Shaya Nikfar said. “We even put on red face paint to scare the other team.”

Assistant coach Jonathan Chui said the team’s strengths and weaknesses largely depend on players’ mind-set.

“One of the strengths the team is the desire to win matches. They know they have to earn each win so they go in with the right mindset,” Chui said. “The big weakness is themselves. If they get too scared to lose, it shows greatly in their play. They just need to overcome that by believing they can win their matches.”

Prior to the game against Monta Vista, the Falcons won 6-1 against Lynbrook on Oct 15. All three of the team’s doubles teams were successful, and three out of the four singles won their matches, the exception being No. 1 singles with a narrow loss.

The team’s lineup was almost identical to the one against Monta Vista, the only differences were in the singles lineup, which consisted of No. 1 senior Usha Raman, No. 2 Shaya Nikfar, No 3. Caitlin Ju, and No. 4 freshman Neeka Nikfar. The team hopes to go into CCS as the No. 1 seed. If the team continues to be tied with Monta Vista’s team for first place when the season ends, they will play a tiebreaker match at a neutral site, Lynbrook High School.

“I think we have a good chance [at CCS], especially after winning against Monta Vista, so we are a lot more confident and we’re bound to do better than last season,” Ju said.

The team will play in SCVAL League Finals starting Nov 5.