Well it's not quite Ali-Frazier (of course none of these kids know what I'm talking about) but the first place and undefeated Lady Mustangs Girls Varsity Tennis Team (9-0) traveled south on Wednesday. 10/5 to Los Banos to take on the second place Lady Tigers of Los Banos High (8-1) for WAC supremacy .... at least in girls tennis. While the Lady Mustangs won their earlier meeting this season in Mountain House 6-3, that was also the closest score in the short 4 year history of this rivalry (Mountain House has won all 7 previous matches). "In sports and in life, the better team does not always win. Upsets can and often happen so we put in some extra practice time yesterday to make sure it didn't happen." said Coach Andy Su.
With the temperature in the 90s, the singles matches started soon after the introductions. Super sophomore and new MH #1 Anisha Pandey was no match today against the Los Banos #1 and likely league MVP Kloe Cotta, losing 1-6, 0-6. Super sophomore Akuokor Sai (aka Bella) dominated her opponent at #5 singles, winning 6-1, 6-0. Freshman sensation Ananya Pandey (aka Megamind) also won easily 6-1, 6-3 at #6 singles. Senior veteran Lizzie Su had to survive 4 set points in the first set to escape at #3 singles with a win, 7-6, 6-3. Junior star Akhila Maganti (aka AkhilaBob) and Super sophomore Akweley (aka Bijou) won the only 6-0, 6-0 match of the day and won our 4th point. Senior Captain Malvika Seth started very slowly falling behind 2-5 and losing the first set 4-6 before steadying herself and winning the next 2 sets 6-0, 6-0 to clinch the match with our 5th point.
The last 3 matches were all close and could have gone either way. In a seesaw match, after winning the first set 5-7, and losing the second set 2-6, Super sophomore Anya Palsson came from behind in the 3rd set to force a tie breaker which she won 7-4. Senior veteran Jannat Baig and junior veteran Neha Bhaskarabhotla won at #3 doubles 6-2, 6-2. The last match of the day was between senior veteran Sumedha Kundurthi and Super sophomore Kavya Nigam. Clearly not playing their best, the pair fell behind 1-4 in the first set before storming back and winning 6-4. In the second set, they fell behind again 3-5 and came back to tie the score at 5-5 but eventually lost 5-7 due to multiple errors. Since the team match was decided, a 10 point tie-breaker was played in lieu of a full set and Kundurthi-Nigam regrouped and controlled the tie breaker and won 10-5. It was the 58th consecutive league win for MH and the Lady Mustangs are 4 wins away from a 5th consecutive league/division championship.
MH will travel to Modesto to take on 3rd place Beyer on Monday.