Neuqua Valley overcomes Metea Valley

On a very hot Thursday afternoon on the Metea Valley tennis courts, thoughts of the host Mustangs and the Neuqua Valley girls tennis players were not of conference meets and sectionals.

That's certainly not the case at this early point of the season. The players' focus was on improving their games while dealing with less-than-ideal playing weather.

Neuqua Valley won the meet 7-0, but both coaches said afterward that their teams need to progress.

"This is a nice group of girls. But we have a lot of work to do. It's almost a whole new team," said Neuqua coach Trudy Bennorth.

Singles winners for the Wildcats were Jessica Chen at No. 1, Veena Murali at No. 2 and Charlotte Havland at No. 3.

Doubles victors were Hannah Gerdes/Adriana Mata at No. 1, Riziki Covington/Megan Dart at No. 2, Mikala Gerdes/Nilasha Voruganti at No. 3 and Hannah Beck/Megan Wu at No. 4.

There were two matches that stayed on the courts the longest. Chen prevailed in a tough battle over Metea junior Michelle He, 6-1 and 6-4.

"Michelle is a really great player and in the the beginning it was who was the most aggressive. In the second set each of us were more consistent," Chen said.

She added that the heat was a factor.

"Obviously, it's difficult with the heat. On the court, you just want to finish. But you just have to focus," Chen said.

As a sophomore, she was paired with the now graduated Taylor Hershey at doubles and the partners went 5-2 at state, reaching the seventh round of the consolation bracket.

He said she played better as the match progressed.

"Just through the entire match I thought I played pretty well, especially the second set. (Chen) made every point tough to get. I'm going to use this as a motivator. Close matches make me want to keep improving," she said.

"We have things to work on. This was a good test. We're still figuring things out. We competed hard and Neuqua was good competition.

"I thought (Michelle) totally turned things around in that second set. She played to her strengths and both players fought so hard," Olson said.

The other match to leave the court late was the No. 2 doubles battle with Covington/Dart fighting off Metea's Anjali Busch and Stephanie Wu, 7-6 and 6-3.