After almost 3 weeks of delays the NCS Girls Tennis Singles Championship took place this past Monday at Alameda’s Harbor Bay Club.

Sophomore ELIZA BATES, who played #1 singles for the Dons throughout the season, and won the DAL SINGLES title was Acalanes’  lone representative this year.

. With 14 players in the event Eliza drew the #4 seed, Senior Sasha Turchak from Berkeley High, in the 1st round…not a very lucky draw.

After a great battle in the first set with  the lead going back and forth ,  Eliza prevailed winning the set 7-5.

That first set win set the stage for Eliza to win more easily  6-0 in the 2nd set.

 

In the 2nd round, Eliza went up against another Senior , Angela Huang from Piedmont High, which  normally competes in the smaller Division 2 league.   Angela’s solid consistent game gave Eliza some early trouble in the 1st set, and Eliza lost the set 1-6.

This can be a difficulty of playing back to back matches on tournament days, hard to reset your focus.  But Eliza did just that …. during the second set, in the face of her opponent, Eliza stepped her game up to a very high level, and basically

did a playing  level leap-frog over her opponent ,  crushing forehands (making most of them), serving smarter, and playing to win.

Coach Drew stated ”  It was a set that he wished  everyone on the team could have seen,  because I’m sure it would have made you all proud. ”  At 5 games all, the play leveled back out a bit, and later with an unbelievable deuce

game at 5-6,  Eliza saved match point and pushed the set into a 7 point tiebreaker. With some amazing points Eliza fought to the very end but lost 5-7 in the 2nd set tiebreaker.  Heartbreaker !

Congratulations Eliza on a fantastic season the team wishes you  continued success along your personal  tennis journey!  Your hard work and determination are what make sports worth watching and worth coaching.

The opponent Angela went on to win the Singles title and will play next year at college.