Girls Tennis Demolishes Wheaton

In their second home game this season, Blair's tennis team slaughtered
their Wheaton rivals 7-0. Senior Vivian Wang was the most victorious,
crushing her opponent 6-0, 6-0 in two consecutive sets. Not far in Wang's triumphant wake were junior Lisa Kim and seniors Jennifer
Alyono and Julia Kay, all of whom clobbered their opponents 6-1 6-0, 6-0 6-1 and 6-0 6-2, respectively.

Alyono combined speedy footwork with fierce overheads and mighty drop shots, while Kim and Kay fired one power-packed slammer after another, creaming their Wheaton rivals. "I think the team as a whole played well today, brushing up on skills, and playing to the best of our abilities," said Kim in admiration of Blair's victory. Blair's doubles trio fared just as triumphantly as their singles
counterparts, giving up a measly 5 games out of the 40 doubles games played today.

Junior Alia Halabi and her partner freshman Kamisha Samuda dominated the courts with Halabi's dipping serves and Samuda's slicing over-the-shoulder backhand volleys. Strategic coordination and killer overheads also contributed to senior Tiffany Lin and her teammate Nisha Aggarwal's crumbling victory of 6-1, 6-2.

But even though today's game was crucial in maintaining the team's Division I stance, Lin does not see Blair's win as a significant accomplishment. "Even though we won, we didn't play very well," commented Lin about her match. Lin added that Wheaton's division III status enabled her to get away with errors that are potentially fatal in tougher matches. "We need to fix the shots that we won't be able to make against the Division I teams."

Coach Ngbea agrees with Lin and was particularly disconcerted with the number of avoidable errors he saw in the matches. "If we loose a point to Wheaton, it's because we're making mistakes, we're not being beaten," Ngbea said, then pointed to Aggarwal, who popped an easy volley straight into the net to prove his point. "It's mistakes like that which are frustrating."

Ngbea plans to emphasize the importance of the net game to his girls and hopes that he will see vast improvements by the next game against Churchill on Friday.