Tennis Lady Barons narrowly miss their shot against Huntington Beach

by Vivian Yenson, Staff Writer

Senior Aozora Ito swings her racket as the ball soars through the sky. Photo by Ivy Duong

The girls’ varsity tennis team faced off against the Huntington Beach Oilers but despite their great efforts, the team unfortunately lost with a close score of 8-10.

No. 1 singles player, senior Vikki Nguyen, the no. 1 doubles team, seniors Sharon Chen and Aozora Ito, as well as the new no. 3 doubles team, senior Hanh Pham and junior Charisse Vu, each won two games.  The no. 2 doubles team, junior Tina Nguyen and freshman Kaylee Tran, and  junior varsity singles player, junior Vivianne Le, each won one game, adding up the total amount of wins to eight games.  Due to several injuries on the varsity team, head tennis coach Harshul Patel was short one player and brought Le onto the team’s lineup.

“My first week playing for varsity was definitely difficult. I lost all my matches that week, but in the next week, after I got used to it, I managed to win a few games.  [Playing on varsity] has forced me to play more strategically since varsity players are much more consistent; so, I now need to play more offensively and utilize different strategies to win points,” said Le.

This game marked the return of four-year varsity veteran, Hanh Pham. During a game against Long Beach Poly, Pham sprained her ankle which caused a second degree tear in one of her ligaments as well as a month-long break from tennis.  Since her injury has not completely healed, Pham has switched from playing singles to doubles with her partner Charisse Vu.

“I have been out for a little bit over a month now, so I was excited to be a part of the team again and compete with them rather than just sitting on the bench and not being able to help.  At this last game against HB, I think we actually did really good, especially since our season has been really rough lately. Everyone was changing positions and changing partners, so I think they all did really well with coping to the changes to every match. Unfortunately the score didn’t turn out how we wanted, but Coach Patel has also been really positive with all of us and pushing us to work hard. I really think the team’s mentality has changed after Patel’s motivational talks, so we should have a good chance at winning tomorrow’s game”, said Pham.

The team’s next match will be against the Edison Chargers at Fountain Valley High School on October 10th.