By Noah Miyamae
Assoc. Sports Editor
The girls’ varsity tennis team fell to the La Cañada Spartans by a score of 7-11 on Tuesday, October 13 at La Cañada High School. This outcome mirrored the first match that the girls played against La Cañada in their Rio Hondo League opener.
The team experimented with new formations and lineups in this match in order to gain a tactical edge on the Spartans. Usually, sophomore team captain Molly Round competes as a singles player, but in this match, she partnered up with junior Anya Nicolaides. The duo won an outstanding three games by scores of 6-2, 6-3, and 6-0.
The remaining doubles teams also performed strongly. Juniors Jessica Chang and Ashley Huang continued their dominant stretch to win two of three games. Freshmen Shannon Huang and Rachel Park were also able to grab two of three, rounding up the total of seven wins that the Tigers earned.
The Tigers strategy in this game was to capitalize on the opportunities in doubles matches as this would produce the greatest chances for a victory. This proved to be successful as South Pas won seven of nine doubles games, led by the top two singles players. However, the Tigers could not overcome a tough Spartan singles group and the score remained 7-11.
“Even though we lost, it was still a fairly close game,” junior Nour Mallat said, “The doubles teams performed very well, despite playing together for the first time.”
South Pas now stands at 2-3 in Rio Hondo League play and 8-3-1 overall. The girls will hope to bounce back on Tuesday, October 20 against Temple City at home.