Girl's tennis wins despite storms

Blair and Seneca Valley's girl's tennis teams were still waiting inside at 3:30 PM on Monday, seeing if the courts would be dry enough to play on. But the Blazers won 5-0 despite beginning competition almost an hour late and having their last two singles matches rained out.

The girls came out strong in their doubles matches, which they started while the singles warmed up. All three doubles teams won their matches by very solid margins. Number one doubles team Katherine Epstein and Seema Kacker won 6-0 and 6-3, number two team Janice No and Emily Tsui won 6-0 and 6-1, and number three team Jahnavi Bhaskar and Dominique Francin won 6-1 and 6-0.

Epstein attributed their success to strong teamwork and a good second effort. "I think we lost some intensity towards the end, but we finished strong," she said.

Senecca Valley certainly agreed. After losing to No and Tsui, one girl remarked, "I really thought we were going to crush them, but they played fair and we lost."

The Blazer singles also showed Senecca Valley how to play some real tennis, with Valerie Shen winning 6-3 and 6-2, and Pearl Horng winning 6-0 and 6-1. Stephanie Paul was on her way to a great comeback, losing her first set 3-6 and winning her second 6-2, but was unable to finish the match because of a thunderstorm that struck. That storm also rained out Adidi Bhaskar, who was one point away from finishing up a 7-5, 5-0 match.

Coach Ngbea was happy with his team's win, but believed they still had a lot of work to do. "We need to work on our serves and volleys," he said. "At this level, consistency is the key, not power."