RBHS varsity girls’ tennis played against Hickman High School (HHS) Tuesday, Sept. 26, winning all three singles and six doubles matches with a final score of 9-0.
The win brings RBHS to a season score of 12-1, setting a firm foundation for the upcoming individual and team districts, along with sectionals. After the team clinched its first dual with HHS, singles matches briefly began before rain caused players to stop halfway through their matches. Following this setback, RBHS went 6-0 for its singles sets.
Junior Iris Ma, No. 3 on doubles and No. 6 on singles, went 8-0 on both doubles and singles. Coupled with doubles partner junior Meenu Sivaraman, Ma said they were able to remain upbeat throughout their games.
“When we were playing doubles up there at [court] three, [Meenu and I] kept a lot of good energy,” Ma said. “[We were able to] stay confident and encourage everybody.”
Although typically playing three doubles sets, junior Hanu Yarasi, No. 4 in doubles and No. 3 in singles, played two against HHS and scored 8-0, along with 8-1 for singles. Yarasi felt she and the team as a whole played well overall. Even though she maintained a high score, Yarasi said she had minor setbacks throughout the matches, and that it is difficult to maintain a positive attitude in those moments.
“I was making a lot of mistakes today,” Yarasi said. “I was hitting too many balls out for too long.”
Ma shared Yarasi’s sentiment and said that it is easy to get upset when a ball is missed. Eventually, Ma said, “it gets better” as one plays more matches. She said she uses de-stressing techniques to help cope.
“Most people, they work on their breathing [by] breathing between points and during points,” Ma said. “Also, positive self-talk helps [to remain positive].”
Overall, head tennis coach Ben Loeb said the game went “very well” for RBHS. Loeb said the team started off strong, and that doubles partners Ma and Sivaraman played impressively, along with No. 2 singles player junior Amali Noel Ramesh. The biggest challenge for the team, Loeb said, was reaching their own potential, and he pointed out vulnerabilities seen in a few games during the No. 1 doubles match, and said the team needs to work on getting their serves and returning serves well above the net.
“Sometimes when you’re in a situation of playing a team and you’re winning handily, you might let up a little bit or not play with the same sense of urgency that you need to to really play at,” Loeb said. “And we saw some of that at times today. But overall, I thought our girls competed well and went about it the right way.”
With an upcoming game in Jefferson City on Sept. 27, Loeb looks forward to the team districts tournament Sept. 30. Loeb said the team needs to remain focused, apply themselves and not take anything for granted as the tournament date gets closer.
“We’ve won our team district tournament [for] the last 24 years in a row,” Loeb said.” “So we’re going for a quarter century of consecutive team district championships this year. That’s something to be excited about.”
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