Tiger Tennis falters against the Mavericks

Despite the chill in the air, a large Miller squad was welcomed to the Landon Tennis Center. Unfortunately, the drop in temperature also seemed to cool the Tigers as they took to the courts just prior to the Easter Weekend. But with the loss of feeling in their fingers corresponding to a loss of touch and shots falling long, the Tigers didn’t lose heart and continued to fight even as the April weather seemed to revert back to February.

In Singles play, Chang, Liu, and Zhang each put up a valiant struggle to break back and hold serve after falling behind early in their matches to their Miller opponents. Wall debuted a newly tuned serve, but struggled with consistent ground strokes in the cool conditions. Tudela and Barqawi’s matches were long affairs wherein the outcome doesn’t reflect the time spent around deuce points. Each exchanged the lead with their respective opponents, before adjustments over the course of play brought the win to Miller.

Entering Doubles play with the match outcome decided in the Mavericks favor, the doubles teams continued the fight without wavering. Sam Hazan made his debut in Varsity play, partnering with Wall to log in a workman-like solid 8-3match at #3 doubles. In a match that finished under the lights, the #1 Doubles team of Chang and Liu fought back from 5-7 to tie the match at 8-8 and win by tie-breaker 8-9.

Barqawi was able to play a second singles match in exhibition play.

The loss drops Tiger tennis to 1-4 in VIC play. Varsity Tennis next travel to Carlisle on Tuesday, April 10th.

Match Results against MSA, 4/5/12. Match scores follow the L or W in the parenthesis.