The girls’ tennis team began it’s season Monday, April 10, with a home match against Lynn English. Despite their strong performance, the match ended with a win for Lynn English with a one point margin.
On first singles, was senior captain Samantha Tso. Tso played well with strong hits and powerful returns. Her confidence on the court was clearly one of her strengths. On second and third singles were seniors Emily Zou and Saeko Yonetani respectively. For the third set of singles, Yonetani was good ad easily returned each ball coming her way.
On first doubles were juniors Tiffany Yu and Hong-Li Zheng. On second doubles were junior Yuki Cheung and sophomore Nikita Puri.
The first set of doubles, which consisted of Yu and Zheng, played well. The second set of doubles, which was played by Cheung and Puri, seemed to win over the court and overpowered Lynn English easily. They returned each ball easily, even conversing as they hit.
The strength of the doubles matches was the most advantageous part for the Malden girls. The pairs playing together worked well and had good chemistry on the court, which is most likely why they were the strongest part of the game.
According to captain Tso, this match against Lynn English was different compared to last year’s. She was proud of her team and herself for being able to attack the ball more and go for more points.The match was close for Malden. The doubles were strong, and the single matches were very close.
Even though the game had many positives for Malden, there were also some negatives. The wind seemed to affect their game, and they had trouble going back and forth at some moments of the match.
Tso, who knows the team really well, is beginning to think that their weaknesses in matches could be in their serving; including the ability to serve skillfully and effectively.
The girls tennis team played very well, despite their loss, and definitely will be practicing on their weaknesses like serving and strengthening their positive plays to make sure that next time they face off Lynn English, they will be able to come out victorious.
