GILROY — The Christopher girls tennis team that Gilroy saw wasn’t the same one from earlier in the season. No, this team was much, much better.
The Cougars blanked the Mustangs 7-0 at Gilroy High Thursday to sweep the season series between the two squads.
Christopher was dominant in each of its singles matches, but competition got a bit tougher on the doubles side.
The No. 1 teams of Christopher’s Tiffany Roberts and Kaitlyn Lombardo were tied 6-6 with Gilroy’s Caitlin Filice-Hollar and Nicole Holder late in the second set with both teams battling for the win. But Christopher would emerge victorious, wining 6-3, 7-6 over its Gilroy counterparts.
“It’s kind of weird (playing Christopher) because we’re like friends with them, but we still want to win,” Holder said after the game.
Emily Barham — the Cougars’ No. 1 singles player — was the first to walk away with a victory. She had a dominate performance over Gilroy’s No. 1 Amiti Munshi, winning 6-0, 6-1.
After losing the first set, Munshi opened the second by jumping out to an early 1-0 lead. Barham quickly rebounded to finish off the last meeting between the two seniors with a bang.
“I’ve had fun playing against Amiti the last four years,” Barham said. “It was a good match, I think I played well. I was just concentrating on getting my serve in — it makes me happy — and just hitting my shots.”
No. 2 singles player Adena Chen took a little while to get hot, despite the blazing tempature. Her opponent, Gilroy’s Yesenia Mendez, jumped ahead 3-0 in Set 1, leaving Chen to play catch-up. But once the Cougars’ No. 2 got rolling, there was no stopping her as Chen went onto win 6-3, 6-0.
“It was really good competition and it’s really fun playing Gilroy High because they’re right across town,” she said. It’s not like we’re mean to each, we’re friendly with one another. We say like ‘good shot’ when the person makes a really good shot, it was fun.”
Just as the Christopher squad looked different this time around, so did Gilroy. The Mustangs were without three of their starters for the match, leaving them to improvise with some inexperienced players.
“What I’ve been most impressed with — especially since the first time we were talking — is how much they’ve improved,” GHS coach Scott Denman said. “Our No. 1 doubles team, I think that was only their second loss of the season. Everybody kind of had to be moved around today so it was experimental for the team chemistry. For some of the singles players it was their first time ever playing singles. Overall, I’m very impressed.”
Though Christopher coach Patrick McBrearty was happy with Thursday’s sweep, he still said he’d like to see more movement out of his team.
The movement and ability to adjust to their opponent as displayed by Roberts and Lombardo in their doubles match is something he’d like to see the rest of the Cougars mimic.
“A lot of the kids will stand and wait for the ball, he said. “The main thing we’re working on now is court positioning and making sure they realize where they are on the courts, so they don’t play out balls, that’s key.”
No. 1 singles — Emily Barham (CHS) beat Amiti Munshi (GHS) 6-0, 6-1.
No. 2 singles — Adena Chen (CHS) beat Yesenia Mendez (GHS) 6-3, 6-0.
No. 3 singles — Liz Levan (CHS) beat Carissa Jackson (GHS) 6-1, 6-3.
No 4. singles — Jade Bardrick (CHS) beat Ada Gailey (GHS) 6-0, 6-1.
No. 1 doubles — Tiffany Roberts and Kaitlyn Lombardo (CHS) beat Caitlin Filice-Hollar and Nicole Holder (GHS) 6-1, 7-6.
No. 2 doubles — Renata Vasconcelos and Kelly Nantais (CHS) beat Victoria Rodriguez and Mya Esquivel (GHS) 7-5, 6-3.
No. 3 doubles — Minna Wu and Claudia Espino (CHS) beat Maggie Pickford and Catherine Bell (GHS) 6-3, 6-1.
