The Mountain House High School (MHHS) Lady Mustangs varsity tennis doubles teams of Lizzie Su and Malvika Seth, and Akweley and Akuokor Sai (both pictured) traveled south early Wednesday morning to Los Banos for the end of year league (WAC) doubles championship. The WAC All League selections were announced in the morning and 4 MHHS players were selected: Seth, Su, Anisha Pandey and Anya Palsson.
Doubles action started soon after. First up were the sophomore sensations and wonder twins Akweley and Akuokor Sai who drew the #3 seed from Beyer High in the first round. Undaunted, the twins battled hard and controlled the match from the start winning 6-3, 6-1. Seth and Su, the defending WAC doubles champions and #1 seed in the tournament, had no trouble beating the #2 team from Lathrop High 6-0, 6-1. In the quarterfinals, Sai & Sai continued their solid play and beat the #1 team from Lathrop 6-2, 6-0. Seth and Su got the #1 Ceres team in the quarterfinals and beat them soundly 6-0, 6-1.
In the semifinals, the #1 seed Seth and Su continue to dominate their opponents from Johansen winning 6-1, 6-0. In their first 3 matches, the pair lost a total of 3 games. Sai and Sai took on the powerful #2 seed from Los Banos of Hailey Moore and Melina Mejia. In a back and forth first set, the twins finally won it in a tie-breaker 7-6. Although Mountain House had an early lead in the second set, Los Banos battled back and won the second set 6-3. In the 3rd set, during the 5th game, with the score tied at 2-2, Akuokor Sai rolled her ankle after hitting a serve and fell to the ground. Unable to put any weight on the injured leg, Mountain House had to forfeit the match and the #2 seed moved on to the finals to meet the #1 seed from Mountain House
For the second year in a row and 4 of the last 5 years, Mountain House and Los Banos met in the doubles finals as the #1 and #2 seeds (last year Los Banos was #1). Seth and Su continued their dominating ways early, winning the first set 6-0. Just when the pair thought the finish was in sight, the "wheels" fell off and the Los Banos pair rose to the occasion and won the next 7 games in a row. Like a heavyweight boxing match, the opponents traded punches in the 3rd set. Mountain House took an early lead 3-1 but Los Banos stormed back and tied it at 3-3. The 7th game got to deuce and Mountain House escaped due to a Los Banos error. Another loose game by MH and solid play by Los Banos tied the match up at 4-4. With the sunlight disappearing rapidly, MH played a solid game to get to 5-4, breaking Mejia's service game. Senior Captain Seth was given a chance to serve for the match at 5-4. After a missed volley put Mountain House behind 15-30 in the 10th game, Seth settled herself and fired 3 of her best serves of the day to clinch the match and championship. It was the second consecutive league doubles championship for Seth and the 3rd in a row for Su (who won with Cheon Delacruz when they were sophomores).
Next up for the Lady Mustangs, CIF Sac Joaquin Sectional Playoffs on Monday. Location and opponent TBA.