Freshman Carol Lei, Sophomore Arushi Rai, and Senior Captain Nicole Stomakhin reviewed their performance in their match against Saratoga High School on Sept. 25. The MVHS team lost 6-1. Three of the games went to tiebreak so even though the overall game score showed a considerable gap, the individual matches were close and MVHS girls tennis had an opportunity to win. Lei played doubles, and Rai and Stomakhin played singles. Each girl recounts a different experience with their opponents and how this will affect their future plays.

El Estoque: How did you feel about this game?

Carol Lei: I was playing with a new person, so I couldn’t get my rhythm at first. I could have played better.

I was motivated this game. We were beaten last year, so my friend on the other team rubbed it in my face. She goes to the same clinic as me. On the court, we are competitors, but off court, we are still friends. I was like, when I’m a freshman, I’m going to beat them. I was really pumped up. Then it got really sad when we lost.

Arushi Rai: This game was really close. It’s sad that we got defeated, but at the same time, everyone played really well. We are trying to figure out what we need to fix. After fixing that, I think we’ll be able to beat everybody.

Nicole Stomakhin: I thought I performed really well. I played the same opponent as last year and I lost to her twice pretty easily. This time around, I managed to get one side off of her. I made her fight for it. To me, taking a step like that, just taking a set off of her is a big improvement for me, because last year, I wasn’t able to win anything off of her. I just lost straight sets. Hopefully if I play her next time, I can beat her.

EE: What could the team improve on?

Lei: We could have stayed more consistent and focused more. In the first set, we were out of it.

Rai: The whole team can definitely improve on smarter play. During the doubles, everyone just hits to the volleyer of the other person’s team, and the volleyer is at the advantage, so of course they’re going to win the point.

Stomakhin: Our doubles need a bit of work. Usually, we would have very experienced doubles players, but this year, our levels dropped a little bit. Our girls are still very good, but they don’t really know how to play doubles yet. If we improve our doubles, we can get a few more wins. We’re doing more doubles practices, like working on our volleys and different strategies.

EE: Does this game change your expectation for CCS?

Lei: The game affected me mentally. I get a bit nervous, but the next time I play them, I would keep in mind that we had lost to them. The pressure is on them to continue their streak. It’s more pressure if you win. You feel like you can beat them, and if you don’t, it sucks. Losing makes me wants to get revenge for the next match.

Rai: This game does not change the expectations for CCS. I feel like we’re going to get lucky again.

Stomakhin: I hope that this will push us to work harder and get revenge on them next time. We know that we can beat them, since we have a lot of close matches, so hopefully this will motivate us to do better in CCS.

We will be the underdogs, and surprise everybody.