Aragon’s girls tennis team faced rival Hillsdale, winning singles to balance losses made in doubles.
Sophomore Christina Wu set the tone for the match in singles, where she defeated Hillsdale’s Julia Richardson 6-1 in both sets, becoming the first match to conclude.
“[Wu] had shots where [she] should hit them but had good location on their shots,” said head coach David Owdom.
In second set, Wu had only one double fault out of 15 serve attempts.
“My number one pet peeve is double fault … [you have to] give yourself a chance to win. [The opponent] can’t get a point if you get the ball in.” Owdom said.
With her decisive victories in both sets, Wu believes that maintaining momentum was integral in her success.
“I was pretty good at keeping my shots consistent and making my opponent run more and maybe making them come up to the net a little bit more often,” Wu said.
Away from the serving line, Wu was able to win two volleys in the second set, while winning eight forehands and seven backhands. Owdom attributes her triumphs to strong ball control.
“She doesn’t make mistakes on unforced errors and she knows how to move people around,” Owdom said. “She did a better job once she got the ball to move the other gal around and create openings for herself.”
In the rest of the singles matches, Aragon’s Jessica Fu defeated Sophia Roser 6-3 and 6-2. Aretha Chen was defeated by Hillsdale’s Elena Roser 6-1 and 6-3 and Aragon’s Romy Pachtner defeated Camille Williamson 6-1 6-1.
The first match to conclude in doubles was a 6-1 and 6-2 victory by first time duos seniors Yasmina Malouf and Marie Pachter.
Owdom believes their success comes from work done during practice, where Malouf and Pachter played together for the last four years.
“They do a lot of basic work against each other and [I] hate to say it, I’m old school. The loser gets penalized. They’ll have to run some corners for a little motivation,” Owdom said. “They’re beating up each other [in practice matches] but helping [each other] out now for their regular matches.”
Aragon also suffered two losses for the rest of the doubles matches, with Hillsdale defeating the team of senior Anouk Seibulescu and junior Ariela Leventhal 7-6 and 6-2, as well as Celine Wen and Simran Bal 6-4 and 6-0.
The Dons look to host the Bearcats on Oct. 9.
