The girls varsity tennis team lost a tough match today, September 11, against the Fresno Tournament Division One champion Monta Vista High School. The girls lost 6-1, but the overall match score was reflective of neither the team’s competitive level of play nor the game and set scores.

Number four singles freshman Carina Burdick won in three sets, 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-7), and number three doubles seniors Amy Wang and Sparsha Saxena put up a fight in the second set with a score of 2-6, 6-7 (2-7).

“I think we each played the best we could,” number three singles freshman Lili Kobayashi said. “It was a tough team. They won division one in Fresno, we won Division Three. Even though they won Division One, I feel like the set score doesn’t show how we played and I feel like the game scores were closer. There were games where you would win points but then you would lose that deuce.”

Girls varsity coach Hung Nguyen shared similar sentiments with Lili, but felt that the spirit could have been higher.

“The confidence level could have been better,” Nguyen said. “They would have played better against a team of equal strength, but this team is stronger than the rest. Our spirit is still down a little bit, but I think overall they played well. ”

Amy felt that this confidence level and the ability to forget mistakes on crucial points is what the team really needs in order to push themselves to the next level.

“I feel like our team in general has pretty good technique,” Amy said. “The thing that is really holding us back is our mentality, we kind of psych ourselves out. I feel like we don’t have a lot of confidence when we lose a few critical points, and we feel beat up about it, and don’t continue to try as hard as we can.”

While the team faced a tough loss today, the team still has high prospects for the season. After taking the Division Three title at the Fresno Tournament on Saturday, September 8, the team has plenty of confidence heading into the rest of the season.

“Fresno gave us a lot of confidence,” Nguyen said. “It wasn’t like we breezed through Fresno. Two matches went down to the games and the tiebreakers. I think that this mental test will help them a lot going forward because when the match is close, they know they can come out of the tight match.”

The team will look to take a key win during its away game against Saratoga High School on Thursday, September 13.