EDEN PRAIRIE 5, HUMBOLDT 2
It was a battle of raptors in Eden Prairie today with the host #6 Eagles beating the #7 Humboldt Hawks. EP split the singles taking the first two spots and sweeping the doubles. Humboldt outpointed EP in the singles category, but the tightest matches took place at doubles despite what the margins indicated. Four of the seven doubles sets were decided by three points or less with EP taking three. Second doubles proved to be the tightest as it was the only match that went to three sets and all three sets were decided by the slim margins. The sister duo of Alexa and Ashtyn Bernardy also had to rally from one set down to claim that victory at second doubles for EP.
SINGLES
1 Maya Varikuti, EP def Wah Chri Paw 21-18, 21-15
2 Vivian Nguyen, EP def Ashley Tapia 21-12, 21-14
3 Cherry Paw, H def Wei Wei Chen 21-11, 21-8
4 Kpru Paw, H def Joshnaree 21-14, 21-15
DOUBLES
1 Shreya Juneja/ Aish Balakrishna, EP def Nadine Mutesiu / Lwe Paw 21-13, 21-12
2 Alexa Bernardy/ Ashtyn Bernardy, EP def Say Paw / Lah Sher Poe 18-21, 22-20, 21-19
3 Akshaya Balamurali/ Thanvi Chada, EP def Mya Chandler / Esther Shaw 21-19, 21-17
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Tied 2-2 .500
Games: Tied 4-4 .500
points: Humboldt 143-132 .520
Set 1 points: Humboldt 72-67 .518
Set 2 points: Humboldt 71-65 .522
decided by 10+: Humboldt 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Eden Prairie 1-0 1.000
margin: Humboldt 1.375
DOUBLES
Matches: Eden Prairie 3-0 1.000
Games: Eden Prairie 6-1
points: Eden Prairie 145-121 .545
Set 1 points: Eden Prairie 60-53 .531
Set 2 points: Eden Prairie 64-49 .566
Set 3 points: Eden Prairie 21-19 .525
decided by 10+: none
decided by 3-: Eden Prairie 3-1 .750
margin: Eden Prairie 3.429
FIRST SINGLES
Maya VARIKUTI 2, Wah Chri PAW 0
(reported & recorded 21-18, 21-15)
Eden Prairie’s Maya Varikuti used a solid side out game and kept Humboldt’s Wah Chri Paw bottled up allowing only two runs during the entire match. Varikuti also minimized her errors while taking advantage of gifts from her opponent.
The early phase of set one was spent with five straight side outs. On Varikuti’s fifth service she notched her first run to build a 10-4 lead. At this point Varikuti had eight of her ten points on winners with drives predominating for four points. Paw got the bird back and had the longest string of the first set with five point starting with a two stroke soft drive. For the day Paw had six of her nine soft drives on the two stroke. That tightened the score to 10-9. Paw only had one lead in the set and it came two services later at 13-12 after five stroke clear to the left corner. But missed serves would bite her and cut her momentum down. Three straight times her service ended on missed serves, the only points for Varikuti during this stretch. Varikuti reclaimed the lead at 15-13 with her second run and then stretched it out to 19-15 two services later. Paw fought back with what would prove to be her last run of the match after a six stroke smash gave her the bird back. With the score 19-18 Paw had a back hand hitting error into the net on the third stroke and then finished set one with a three stroke smash.
In set two Varikuti had the only runs with the first coming on her third service. Paw did not get any traction on her serve with no runs in the second set, and only three service points. Paw did have more winners in the set (8-7), but the errors proved fatal. Once again Paw did battle back and held a 12-11 lead but the serve sailed deep on the next bird and that started a five point run for Varikuti (16-12). She did not allow Paw to score on her last three services.
| Category | VARIKUTI | PAW |
| Side out | 15/23-.652 | 11/23-.478 |
| Longest side out string | 5 | 6 |
| 3+ Runs | 4 | 2 |
| Longest point string | 5 | 5 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 2 | 1 |
| First point | 1, 2 | |
| Service points | 19 | 11 |
| Serving % | 38/41-.927 | 27/34-.794 |
| Point generated off serve | .452 | .333 |
| POINTS | 42 | 33 |
| Points after 11 | 20 | 14 |
| Points after own errors | 11 | 12 |
| Winners after own errors | 4 | 5 |
| STROKES | 140 | 113 |
| Strokes per point | 3.333 | 3.424 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 11 | 10 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 18 | 12 |
| WINNERS | 18 | 17 |
| Aces | 0 | 1 |
| Blocks | 0 | 0 |
| Clears | 1 | 2 |
| Drives | 7 | 1 |
| Drops | 4 | 2 |
| Soft drives | 0 | 9 |
| Smashes | 6 | 2 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 8 | 13 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 3 | 6 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 10 | 4 |
| ERRORS | 14 | 24 |
| Deep | 0 | 3 |
| Net | 5 | 10 |
| Wide | 6 | 4 |
| Serve | 3 | 7 |
| Even stroke errors | 5 | 8 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 1 | 8 |
| Odd stroke errors | 9 | 16 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 7 | 11 |
| Right | 11 | 6 |
| Largest Lead | 6, 6 | 1, 1 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.286 | 0.708 |
| Margin | 4.500 | |
| Set Point % | 2/3-.667 | |
| Time | 14:48 |