Up until Saturday, the HRV girls tennis team hasn’t had much cause for concern during any of their matches this season. The Eagles started the season 3-0, winning 36 out of 38 sets played.
That changed in this weekend’s cold, windy match at Ridgeview, where the Eagles ran up against a stout Ravens roster who defeated The Dalles 6-2 the previous evening. Injuries and illness forced a last-minute lineup shuffle for Head Coach Erin Mason, and half of the matches went to tiebreakers, but the Eagles came out in their first real test of the season, defeating Ridgeview 5-3.
Mason has had plenty of good things to say about his team this season, but the first-year head coach was especially complimentary on how his athletes handled adversity in the match at Ridgeview.
“I think with better conditions and a healthy team, this could have been a 7-1 or 6-2 victory… I want to thank my girls who had to play up in this match — none of them are intimidated and will play against anyone,” he noted. “As a coach, I am lucky to have depth in my roster and this is what makes us a great team.”
The Eagles got the majority of their points in singles competition, sweeping the Ravens, although they had to work for every win. In the No. 1 match, Montsie Garrido had to fight to close out after winning her first set against Liara Pinkerton 6-2, taking the second set 7-5. Nikki Paulus and Kirby Joseph had more breathing room in their matches, defeating Stephanie Purkey (6-3, 6-1) and Destiny Perkins (6-1, 6-2) in the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, respectively.
But the singles match of the day went to Monica de la Rosa, who played her first varsity singles match, storming back to a victory after a 4-6 loss in the first set to Kimberly Chavez, winning the second 7-5 and coming out on the right side of a 13-10 third-set tiebreaker.
“I was so proud of her, as well as the team, as that was a pivotal win for HRV getting the match victory,” Mason said.
De la Rosa was subbing for Yasmeen Ziada, who moved to No. 3 doubles with Ruby Dosier after Alivea Harsanyi was unable to travel due to illness and Kayla Green was sidelined with a leg injury she sustained during warmups, Mason said. Dosier and Ziada lost a heartbreaker, dropping the first set 2-6 to Felicity Kohler and Marie Carr, and then rallying to take the second 7-5, only to lose 7-10 in the tiebreaker. Mattie Back and Kali Wetherell had a similar tight match at No. 4 with Kimmie Jaramillo and Agrese Veturini, losing the first 4-6, taking the second 7-6 with a 7-4 tiebreaker, then losing the third-set tiebreaker 3-10. America and Crystal Flores also couldn’t pull out a win in the first match, falling 0-6, 1-6, to Sierra Cassaro and Riley Banks.
The lone win in doubles competition came from Bianca Badillo and Claire Oswald, who eked out a win against Kaylynne Boardman and Megan Aldridge in the No. 2 match, losing the first set 3-6, then coming back to take the second set (6-3), and the third-set tiebreaker (10-6).
HRV was scheduled to travel to Columbia River Conference rival Hermiston on Tuesday (results not available at press time), then heads to Madras on Saturday for a tournament.
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