HRV girls tennis wins conference opener

The victory for HRV moves the Eagles to 3-1 overall on the season and 1-0 in conference play.

The number one and number twos for the Eagles, in both singles and doubles competition, won in straight sets excluding the Eagles’ number one doubles team.

Claire Oswald and Kirby Joseph started out strong with a 6-2 victory for the Eagles in the first set, but would “let their guard down in the second set and lost,” said head coach Erin Mason.

In the third set, they came back strong, winning 6-1 in the final set to get the victory.

“Claire and Kirby are going to be a strong number one doubles team as they develop a doubles relationship,” said Mason. “This is only their second match together and I saw some great things in their performance. As they get more comfortable and are able to read each other’s intent on the court, they will be tough.”

At number one singles, Montsie Garrido threw up a quick two sets of 6-1 victories to beat her opponent.

“Montise is starting to get into her groove at singles. She is going to have a great season,” said Mason.

Despite the Eagles losing in the number four singles and doubles matches, there was a positive to come out of those losses.

“I placed some first-year players from my junior varsity squad at number four singles and doubles and was very happy with their performance,” said Mason.

This was led off by Dianna Magana and Jovana Delatorre at number four doubles. “These girls played awesome for their first official varsity match,” said Mason.

At number four doubles, the girls played a pro set to eight. At one point in their match, Magana and Delatorre were up 7-6 on serve for the match.

“The Columbia team battled back and ended up winning 9-7,” said Mason. “Overall a great performance by these two new comers this year.”

At number four singles, Mason put Yadia Esquirez in the varsity spotlight.

Esquirez, who is playing tennis for the first time this year, lost her match 8-1, “but the score didn’t represent how well she did,” said Mason.

“Columbia put their number two varsity singles player back in at number four to give Yadia a match,” said Mason. Ruby Dosier had defeated the number two singles player for Columbia earlier in the day by final set scores of 6-1. “So I was proud of Yadia for stepping up in this match and playing hard.”

Next up, Mason will take his number one and two singles and doubles team to the Madras Tournament on Saturday, April 14 for an all-day event. “This will be good for them as they will play six to seven matches in an eight-hour span,” said Mason. “It will be a good warm up for our next conference match.”

The HRV girls tennis team travels to The Dalles on Tuesday, April 17 for its next conference match.