Varsity girls tennis faced a tough loss against Saratoga in their CCS Championship game
The varsity girl’s tennis team started off the season with a first place finish in the California High School Tennis Classic tournament and mustered up an undefeated league record. Unfortunately, the team ended the league season with a 2-5 loss in the final round of CCS against Saratoga on Nov. 18.
"The pressure wasn’t just from CCS. We also had a lot of pressure coming in because we’re expected to be the winners," senior Tara Nguyen said.
The team had to win four out of the seven matches in order to win the CCS Championship. Unfortunately, though they were set to take first in CCs, the Matadors were forced to take home the second place trophy.
"We were the favorites, and they were the underdogs," senior Annalisa Choy said.
Li started off the first game of the set a bit unevenly, barely making her returns, which allowed her opponent to win the first game. The same mistakes continued on into the third game, with the Falcons up 3-0 after they made some powerful shots that the Matadors could not return.
She came back in the fourth game, overcoming her opponent in strong rallies, making the score 1-3. In the next two games, she began to struggle against the power behind her opponents swings, and frustratingly gave up the two games leaving the Falcons just one game away from winning a set.
Unwilling to surrender, Li returned in the next game, starting off down 0-30, then picking up the momentum after a carefully placed slice, eventually winning the game and making the score 2-5. Her short-lived comeback was not enough to slow down the Falcons, winning the first set of the match 2-6, after a powerful hit causes Li to lose power on her ball, sending it into the net.
The second set began with a loss for MVHS, as Li still struggled against the Falcons hits. After two aces in the second game by the Falcons, Li was down 0-2. After three more games, strong finishes to rallies and even stronger serves brought Li within striking range, with a game score of 2-3.
Continuing her comeback, Li used well- placed slices to win two more games, putting her in the lead by one game, 4-3.
During the next game, a small disagreement occured when the Falcons’ player called a ball out, which Li and many spectators strongly believed was in. A line judge was brought in and the match continued, with Saratoga pulling into a tie game at 4-4.
In a tight battle with both players trading games, they ended up at 6-6, in a tiebreak. If Li won the tiebreak, another set would have been played, giving her a chance to take the game back, but if she lost, the Falcons would take the match. With immense pressure Li duked it out with her opponent, with multiple rallies extending the tiebreak continuously. Eventually, the pressure got to her, and after an extremely fast hit from the Falcons, Li lost the final match of the day.
Although Li had already won two matches against the same girl, the pressure of the CCS championships got to her, "I had one good drop shot, but overall [I] did pretty [badly] ," said Li, "[I] should have not gotten so nervous."
