Girls tennis: Murali leads Neuqua Valley past Metea Valley

What better way to open the DuPage Valley Conference portion of your girls tennis schedule than to face a big district rival.

That was the case Thursday afternoon when Metea Valley played host to District 204 sister school Neuqua Valley. The Wildcats prevailed 6-1.

“This is a great group of girls. But they have a lot of work to do to get to the level I want them to be,” said Neuqua coach Trudy Bennorth.

Two of the Wildcats' victories came from returning state meet participants. Senior Veena Murali won 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. She won a match last year at state.

“I thought I played real well. I got off to a slow start and (Metea's Natalia Kochkodan) is a great player. It was windy and that made it difficult, but I'm glad how it went,” Murali said. 

Failing to reach state her sophomore season provided a lot of incentive for Murali.

“Between sophomore and junior year, I put in a lot of hard work and it paid off. I've kept working. Hopefully, this year will also be the year,” she said.

Current junior Hanna Beck and sophomore Hannah Neuman reached the fourth round of the consolation bracket last fall and finished 3-2. They won Thursday 6-0, 6-3.

The two believe that an increased aggressiveness is the difference in their game compared to last season.

“I think we won today because we were serving and volleying a lot and going to the net and that plays to our advantage,” Beck said.

That didn't always happen last year.

“Then we were hesitant. We were going to the net right away today,” Neuman said.

Also winning against the Mustangs was Riya Garapati at No. 3 singles along with the No. 2 doubles team of Megan Wu and Jessica Chivani; the No. 3 pair of Audrey Provine and Jessica Liu and the No. 4 duo of Nilasha Voruganti and Nadella Apoorva.

Metea's Meer Baid won at No. 2 singles 6-0, 6-2.

“She hit the shots that she needed to win and was very consistent,” said Metea coach Kole Clousing.

He said this season's version of the Mustangs is young. Returning state qualifier Taylor Goldman is a sophomore.

“Today was a good learning experience,” he said.

Metea returns to action Saturday at the Lincoln-Way West Quad as does Neuqua in the Downers Grove South Team Tournament.