Varsity Girls Tennis fell to Los Altos High School with a score of 4-3 on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Although the Matadors won early matches and gained a strong lead, they ultimately came up short in the final matches. Despite the loss, senior Diya Sammanna, who played doubles with her partner Zoe Laurelle, was proud of their performance.
“We were pretty consistent and we stayed calm even though we lost points,” Sammanna said. “We weren’t rushing. Once we won the first game of the set, we were able to be more confident.”
Although Sammanna believes their game went well, she hopes to be more aggressive by rallying from the base and appreciates her partner playing aggressively. She also plans to continue improving her volleys by hitting harder and taking more shots.
“When I miss one volley, I start to get scared,” Sammanna said. “Then I start missing more volleys. In the beginning, I was okay, and the other team was not falling toward the ball. So if I hit it short, it was hard for them to get it. But then, I started missing volleys in the second set.”
Sophomore and doubles player Eva Tian echoed similar sentiments regarding her performance, noting that Los Altos was “weird to play against” as their volleys and groundstrokes were stronger and more intense than expected. She attributes her difficulty playing to her lack of good practice.
“I think it’s really sad we lost because we were doing really well,” Tian said. “I’m honestly kind of surprised and sad, but regardless, I’m pretty content with the way things went out today. I just haven’t been playing my best recently, but I feel like I put up a good mental game today.”
Tian credits her stronger mental game to her partner, sophomore Lisa Yoshida, who “played hard” and kept cheering Tian on. Yoshida also enjoyed the game and believes they played well, although she thinks she struggled with keeping her focus stable throughout the entire match.
“I think I lost my focus, especially during the second set, after we won the first set,” Yoshida said. “I loosened up too much, and I wasn’t doing well during the pressure points, which is when we started losing. We had a lot of close games and a lot of deuces, and the tie-break was pretty intense.”
Despite the loss, Yoshida is proud of the effort put into the game. She highlights a long and intense net rally battle as a favorite moment from the game where Tian was ultimately able to score a point.
“We managed to fight through and win, that was really nice,” Yoshida said. “Moving forward, I want to be more confident, especially at the net, and approach it more. Hopefully, we do well at CCS and possibly go to the CCS finals.”
