KENNEDY 6, BURNSVILLE 1
With the city schools off this week due to spring break, the schedule has been pretty thin. Monday there was no action. Today the suburban schools took center stage. Kennedy won the first battle of 35W with a convincing 6-1 win over the Blaze. The Eagles swept the doubles and took the odd doubles in their win. The only match that went the distance came at third doubles where the first two sets were decided by two points. The combined point totals in doubles came down to one point. There were two sets that went to extra points, the second set at second singles and the second set at third doubles.
Both schools played in the Edina invitational, but the two teams did not have any face to face meeting in the singles or doubles portion of that event.
Kennedy this year as a couple of players on the lower level from Jefferson, a first ripple in that pool.
SINGLES
1. Yan-Mei Yuan, K def Mai Ngo 21-14, 21-14
2. Yan-Ling Yuan, K def Mia Katzmarek 21-18, 22-20
3. Kim Nguyen, K def Sara Tozierl 21-12, 21-13
4. Tran Nguyen, K def Natasha Schonewill 21-11, 21-11
DOUBLES
1. Annabelle Benitez/Yulissa Martinez-Sandria, K def Delaney/Clarissa 21-17, 21-18
2. Shannon Murray/Kenzie Schwarz, B def Mazi/Zarin Islam 21-11, 21-18
3. Jessie Thomson/Mercedes, K def Aurora Anderson/Kiah Christopherson 21-19, 22-24, 21-14
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Kennedy 4-0 1.000
Games: Kennedy 8-0 1.000
points: Kennedy 169-113 .599
decided by 10+: Kennedy 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Kennedy 2-0 1.000
margin: Kennedy 7.00
DOUBLES
Matches: Kennedy 2-1 .667
Games: Kennedy 4-3 .571
points: Kennedy 135-134 .502
decided by 10+: Burnsville 1-0 1.000
decided by 3-: tied 2-2 .500
margin: Kennedy 0.14
FIRST SINGLES
yan-mei YUAN 2, mai NGO 0
(21-14, 21-14)
Kennedy’s Yan-Mei Yuan swept Mai Ngo by identical 21-14 scores….or did she? I had 22-14 in the first set. Yuan dominated the side out category scoring on 15 of her 18 services. Ngo, by contrast, was able to crack the ice seven times. Yuan made use of the bird early with a slicing ace on the back middle to open the game. That sparked the first run of five capped by another ace. Yuan pushed Ngo to the back hand side throughout the first set and scored her nine of her eleven winners on the racquet side of the court. Five of Ngo’s six winners came on the back hand side. Both players attempted to keep the bird down and that is one reason there were not that many smash attempts. After building up a 10-2 lead in the first set, the rest of the set was even as both players scored 11 points each. The difference came on scoring on serve. Yuan scored four times off serve. One of the times Ngo sided out came on a 14 stroke smash. There were five mega stroke rallies with Yuan prevailing 3-2 in those situations.
In set two Ngo grabbed the initiative with the first run of three and held a 7-5 lead. Yuan rattled off five straight points to take a hold of the action and she never let go. She then tacked on another run of three to push the lead to 13-8. A trio of hitting errors closed the gap to 14-12, but that was as close as it was going to get. Yuan ended the match with a three stroke smash. In that last set Ngo had one more winner than Yuan (7-6).
| Category | YUAN | NGO |
| Side out | 10/17-.588 | 3/18-.167 |
| Longest side out string | 2 | 1 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 3 |
| Longest point string | 5 | 4 |
| SERVING | ||
| Service points | 26 | 11 |
| Serving % | .976 | 1.000 |
| Point generated off serve | .605 | .393 |
| POINTS | ||
| Overall points | 43 | 28 |
| Points after 11 | 21 | 16 |
| Points after own errors | 6 | 11 |
| STROKES | ||
| Strokes | 179 | 118 |
| Strokes per point | 4.163 | 4.214 |
| 5+ rallies | 14 | 9 |
| 2- rallies | 10 | 10 |
| WINNERS | 17 | 14 |
| Aces | 2 | 1 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 2 | 4 |
| Drives | 1 | 3 |
| Drops | 5 | 0 |
| Soft drives | 3 | 4 |
| Smashes | 4 | 2 |
| ERRORS | 14 | 26 |
| Deep | 3 | 1 |
| Net | 4 | 18 |
| Wide | 6 | 7 |
| Serve | 1 | 0 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.214 | 0.538 |
| Margin | 7.50 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 14:42.53 |