HIGHLAND PARK 7, NORTH ST. PAUL 0
Highland Park wrapped up their regular season matches with a sweep of the visiting Polars of North St. Paul. The Scots did not lose a single set on the day. The tightest contest came at first singles with Sheng Xiong getting to 16 points in the second set. Seven times HP held NSP to single digits. That was reflected in the overall margins of 10.75 in singles, and 10.50 in doubles.
HP was back at full strength today with AP testing holding some players out in Tuesday’s win over Eden Prairie
SINGLES
1. Sunshine Vang, HP def Sheng Xiong 21-13, 21-16
2. Phlower Vang, HP def Isabelle 21-6, 21-12
3. Sara Shiferaw, HP def Deishia Xiong 21-7, 21-7
4. Houahna Yang, HP def Mallory Heaser 21-8, 21-13
DOUBLES
1. Ellie Boudet / Katia Gercheva, HP def Claire Yang/ Jolena Young 21-7, 21-10
2. Bety Shiferaw / Satori Soulisak-Hoang, HP def Pajzib Lor/ Ashley 21-8, 21-15
3. Alice Verbrugge / Claudia Rodriguez-Foster, HP def Juliet Yang/ Joscelyn Vang 21-8, 21-15
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
points: Highland Park 168-82 .672
Set 1 points: Highland Park 84-34 .714
Set 2 points: Highland Park 84-48 .636
decided by 10+: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
decided by 3-: none
margin: Highland Park 10.75
DOUBLES
Matches: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 6-0 1.000
points: Highland Park 126-63 .667
Set 1 points: Highland Park 63-23 .733
Set 2 points: Highland Park 63-40 .612
decided by 10+: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
decided by 3-: none
margin: Highland Park 10.50
FIRST SINGLES
SUNSHINE VANG 2, SHENG XIONG 0 (21-13, 22-16)
#1 ranked Sunshine Vang got ready for the upcoming St. Paul City tournament with a two set win over Sheng Xiong. Xiong, who had to withdraw from the Tuesday match with Math & Science with a rolled ankle, was back in action today. The difference between the two came in winners with Vang up 30-12 and specifically odd stroke winners 18-5. Vang had issues with her smash. Four times in the first set she misfired on the smash finding the net instead, three of those opportunities came on her serve. The issues cleared up somewhat in the second set. She went from two smash winners to four and cut her errors to one on that specific shot.
I am sure that Xiong was still not at full mobility today. Despite the injury she gave Vang fits. She was not able to turn off the run spigot. Vang had five in the second set alone. But Vang was not able to gain separation until runs of three and four on her seventh and eighth service put her up 18-11 (or should I say 17-11, for some reason the counting was off in this set). Xiong had one last gasp with her second run of the set coming on her final service. That closed the margin to 18-16 (their count). Three of those final points came on Vang hitting errors. Once Vang got the side out she had a seven stroke drop followed by a block on the seventeenth stroke, the longest rally of the day to claim the win.
The rally lengths tended to go long in this contest with +5 strokes outperforming 2 strokes and less 30-18.
| Category | VANG | XIONG |
| Side out | 10/18-.556 | 9/19-.474 |
| Longest side out string | 3 | 3 |
| 3+ Runs | 9 | 4 |
| Longest point string | 4 | 4 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 2 | |
| First point | 1, 2 | |
| First run | 1 | 2 |
| Service points | 25 | 11 |
| Serving % | 43/43-1.000 | 27/29-.926 |
| Point generated off serve | .581 | .379 |
| POINTS | 43 | 29 |
| Points after 11 | 21 | 12 |
| Points after own errors | 12 | 4 |
| Winners after own errors | 8 | 3 |
| STROKES | 194 | 141 |
| Strokes per point | 4.512 | 2.862 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 16 (.372) | 14 (.483) |
| 2- rallies (%) | 11 (.256) | 7 (.241) |
| WINNERS | 30 (.698) | 12 (.414) |
| Aces | 1 | 0 |
| Blocks | 2 | 0 |
| Clears | 7 | 2 |
| Drives | 4 | 3 |
| Drops | 8 | 1 |
| Soft drives | 2 | 4 |
| Smashes | 6 | 2 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 12 | 7 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 5 | 5 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 18 | 5 |
| ERRORS | 17 (.586) | 13 (.302) |
| Deep | 5 | 0 |
| Net | 8 | 5 |
| Wide | 4 | 6 |
| Serve | 0 | 2 |
| Even stroke errors | 7 | 8 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 2 | 3 |
| Odd stroke errors | 10 | 5 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 9 (.300) | 4 (.333) |
| Right | 21 (.700) | 8 (.667) |
| Largest Lead | 9, 7 | 0, 2 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.765 | 0.923 |
| Margin | 7.00 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 15:53 |
FIRST DOUBLES
ELLIE BOUDET / KATIA GERCHEVA 2, CLAIRE YANG / JOLENA YOUNG 0 (21-7, 21-10)
The Highland Park pair stopped the visitors in two sets in slightly over eleven minutes of action. The ability (or inability) to score on serve was paramount in determining the winner of this match. Both HP players were strong when serving with Katia Gercheva a perfect 6/6 on her opportunities, all with runs. NSP combined only had four times they scored off serve and the runs were limited to one by Claire Yang and that was at the very last NSP service in the second set as they held off match point three times. Gercheva also had 19 service points to lead the pack. Ellie Boudet led in winners with 13. I have added a “set up” point total. This is determined by who last contacted the bird before the opponent’s error. Measuring that stat Gercheva led with 13. Together the HP players only had four errors when the bird was in play (minus serving errors where they both a pair). That defensive ability kept the Polars searching for points.
Having charted the first doubles three times I can stop, review, and really dial in on what is happening. The game just moves tooooo fast to chart everything that is going on. And I will probably continue to experiment with this. One item I have noticed is that the better balanced players / teams are more successful. They move better. That is because they stay low ready to move. Most player’s still false step. That means they first lower themselves (drop their head / hips) and then take a step with their right foot to the right in order to go left. That fraction of a second is all it takes for a fast moving bird to find the floor. This leads to another point—the better players anticipate what will happen next—-where the shot will go. They tend to meet the bird ready to go instead of the bird waiting for them.
| Category | BOUDET | GERCHEVA | YANG | YOUNG |
| Side out when receiving | 4/6-.667 | 8/11-.727 | 8/19-.421 | 3/19-.158 |
| 3+ Runs | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| Longest point string | 6 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| SERVING | ||||
| First serve | 1, 2 | |||
| Scoring on service | 5/7-.714 | 6/6-1.000 | 2/6-.333 | 2/6-.333 |
| Service points | 11 | 19 | 3 | 2 |
| Serving % | 15/17-.882 | 23/25-.920 | 9/9-1.000 | 7/8-.875 |
| Pt generated off serve | .262 | .452 | .176 | .118 |
| STROKES | 64 | 68 | 60 | 55 |
| WINNERS | 13 | 6 | 3 | 2 |
| Aces | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Drives | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Drops | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Soft drives | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Smashes | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| SET UP POINTS | 9 | 13 | 5 | 3 |
| ERRORS | 8 | 4 | 11 | 12 |
| Deep | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Net | 4 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| Wide | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Serve | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||||
| Left | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| Right | 6 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.625 | 1.500 | 0.273 | 0.167 |
| TEAM | HP | NSP | ||
| POINTS | 42 | 17 | ||
| Points after 11 | 20 | 5 | ||
| First point | 1 | 2 | ||
| Longest side out string | 5 | 1 | ||
| Strokes per point | 4.262 | 4.882 | ||
| 5+ rallies (%) | 13 (.310) | 6 (.353) | ||
| 2- rallies (%) | 11 (.262) | 7 (.412) | ||
| Largest Lead | 14, 13 | 1, 2 | ||
| Margin | 12.50 | |||
| Set Point % | 2/5-.400 | |||
| Time | 11:18 |