MATH & SCIENCE 6, HMONG COLLEGE PREP ACADEMY 1
Thursday it was off to Woodbury for some EMAC action and Math & Science stopped Hmong College Prep Academy 6-1. The Warriors were able to secure the victory at fourth singles. The only match that went three sets came at third singles and it was an odd sandwich with Emily Nguyen of M&S holding Kani to single digits in the first and third set, while Kani prevailed in the second set 21-17. The doubles were all two setters with four of the six sets decided by ten points or more.
The gym was crowded with both teams producing solid numbers of players. There were over thirty players for each team—an indication that the pandemic drop of numbers has reversed itself. This is a trend I have noticed in other schools with the exception of one.
I know this is late. I had a banquet Thursday night and was not able to get to this story until Friday morning.
SINGLES
1. Akua Yeboah, M&S def Melanie 21-12, 21-8
2. Emily Balandin, M&S def Cassus 21-17, 21-11
3. Emily Nguyen, M&S def Kani 21-9, 17-21, 21-9
4. Chelsea, HCPA def Amanda Dsouza 21-10, 21-8
DOUBLES
1. Adri Tacheny / Pranu Vedere, M&S def Mao / Kabao 21-9, 21-14
2. Ella Walters / Lakshika Reddy, M&S def Cody / Julie 21-8, 21-9
3. Maame Adabor / Alethea Lo, M&S def Selena / Yoko 21-18, 21-11
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Math & Science 3-1 .750
Games: Math & Science 6-3 .667
points: Math & Science 161-129 .555
Set 1 points: Math & Science 73-59 .553
Set 2 points: Math & Science 67-61 .523
Set 3 points: Math & Science 21-9 .700
decided by 10+: Math & Science 4-2 .667
decided by 3-: none
margin: Math & Science 3.56
DOUBLES
Matches: Math & Science 3-0 1.000
Games: Math & Science 6-0 1.000
points: Math & Science 126-69 .646
Set 1 points: Math & Science 63-35 .643
Set 2 points: Math & Science 63-34 .649
Set 3 points: none
decided by 10+: Math & Science 4-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Math & Science 1-0 1.000
margin: Math & Science 9.50
FIRST SINGLES
AKUA YEBOAH 2, MELANIE 0 (22-13, 21-8)
The Dragon’s Akua Yeboah picked up steam as the match went along and won in two sets over the Warrior’s Melanie. Yeboah was able to generate 63% of her points on service and held Melanie to only a 26% rate. That was due to the strong side out game of Yeboah. She stymied Melanie only a 12.5% side out rate while she scored on all be three of her sixteen services, a rate of 81%. As a result of this advantage Yeboah held a commanding lead in winners 26-6. The clear was the top winner with seven, and drops close behind at six showcasing Yeboah’s ability to place the bird the length of the court. Both players were about even in errors, with both sending birds wide eight times.
Yeboah got off to a fast start with two runs on her first two services and built a 7-1 lead. A pair of those Melanie hitting errors were set up by drops. Melanie bounced back with her first of two runs of the day to close to 7-4. At the 9-5 mark there was a question or halt of play as they sorted out the score. Both continued with Yeboah losing a point (8-5). She soon tacked on four more to lead 17-8.
In set two a monster second run of seven by Yeboah created deep separation at 14-5. Five of those points happened to be winners. Melanie was only able to squeeze one point off service in this set and that came on her fourth service. Yeboah used the smash for four of her winners in the final set.
The experiment in even / odd stroke points showed that Yeboah had nine even stroke winners out of a possible 19 attempts, Melanie had four out of 42 attempts (translated 47.4% to 9.3%.
| Category | YEBOAH | MELANIE |
| Side out | 13/16-.813 | 2/16-.125 |
| Longest side out string | 4 | 1 |
| 3+ Runs | 7 | 2 |
| Longest point string | 7 | 3 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 2 | 1 |
| First point | 1, 2 | 0 |
| Service points | 27 | 5 |
| Serving % | 41/42-.977 | 20/21-.954 |
| Point generated off serve | .628 | .263 |
| POINTS | 43 | 19 |
| Points after 11 | 21 | 9 |
| Points after own errors | 11 | 3 |
| STROKES | 180 | 93 |
| Strokes per point | 4.186 | 4.895 |
| 5+ rallies | 16 | 7 |
| 2- rallies | 10 | 1 |
| WINNERS | 26 | 6 |
| Aces | 4 | 0 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 7 | 1 |
| Drives | 4 | 3 |
| Drops | 6 | 1 |
| Soft drives | 0 | 1 |
| Smashes | 5 | 0 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 9 | 4 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 17 | 2 |
| Second Stroke winners | 2 | 0 |
| ERRORS | 14 | 17 |
| Deep | 1 | 0 |
| Net | 4 | 8 |
| Wide | 8 | 8 |
| Serve | 1 | 1 |
| Even Stroke Errors | 3 | 10 |
| Odd Stroke Errors | 11 | 7 |
| Largest Lead | 13 | 0 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.86 | 0.35 |
| Margin | 11.50 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 15:30 |