EDEN PRAIRIE 6, HIGHLAND PARK 1

Eden Prairie opened their season with a 6-1 victory at home over Highland Park. The Scots’ only win came at first doubles with Alice Verbrugge & Violet Solem Valentine. Four the matches went to three sets (all won by EP). A flip of six points would have turned the tables with HP victorious 4-3; nine points would have made it 5-2 HP. Seven sets were decided by three points or less with two that went to extra points. Monisha Chhabra of EP won her first set at third singles with a 27-25 score, the highest of the day.

Despite what looks like an overwhelming result, the point totals tell another tale. The margins favored EP in the singles, but only by 1.545 points per set. In doubles, despite winning only one match, HP had an even bigger margin of 1.571 points per set. How? The Scots dominated the second set sequence with two victories over 10 points. HP also had better numbers in the second set in singles with one set over ten helping that score. But the host Eagles regained the advantage in the third set winning all four of those contests. This was the Scots second day of competition. On Tuesday they lost at Como Park 4-3.

And in keeping with the new coach theme—-HP is under the direction now of Timothy Lang. Former coach Briana Pischke is a new mother, Kathleen Kramer is the assistant coach.

SINGLES

1 Vivian Nguyen, EP def Nica Johnson 11-21, 21-14, 21-19

2 Saisha Peram, EP def Birtukuan Aregawi 21-11, 10-21, 21-18

3 Monisha Chhabra, EP def Nahomi Aregawi 27-25, 17-21, 21-15

4 Hasini Dhamireddy, EP def Charlotte Bistodeau 21-11, 21-19

DOUBLES

1 Alice Verbrugge / Violet Solem Valentine, HP def Alexa Bernardy / Ashtyn Bernardy 21-18, 21-11

2 Joshnasree Jeevarathinam / Inaya Khirid, EP def Abby Putz / Julia Yang 21-16, 10-21, 21-19

3 Akshaya Balamurali / Thanvi Chada, EP def Natalia Gercheva / Emily Schutz 22-20, 21-17

BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Eden Prairie 4-0 1.000
Games: Eden Prairie 8-3 .727
points: Eden Prairie 212-195 .521
Set 1 points: Eden Prairie 80-68 .541
Set 2 points: Highland Park 75-69 .521
Set 3 points: Eden Prairie 63-52 .548
decided by 10+: tied 2-2 .500
decided by 3-: Eden Prairie 4-0 1.000
margin: Eden Prairie 1.545
DOUBLES
Matches: Eden Prairie 2-1 .667
Games: Eden Prairie 4-3 .571
points: Highland Park 135-124 .521
Set 1 points: Eden Prairie 61-57 .517
Set 2 points: Highland Park 59-42 .586
Set 3 points: Eden Prairie 21-19 .525
decided by 10+: Highland Park 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Eden Prairie 2-1 .667
margin: Highland Park 1.571

FIRST SINGLES

Vivian NGUYEN 2, Nica JOHNSON 1
(reported 11-21, 21-14, 21-19; charted 11-20, 20-14, 22-20)

Vivian Nguyen rallied from a 19-17 deficit in the third set to top Nica Johnson in three sets. If you note from the scores above there were some missing points (and in the case of the third set, some additional).

Johnson took the first set with an overwhelming 13-3 winner mark. She had two runs in that set—the first on her third service with a five pointer to get to 8-2 and then on her sixth pushing the score out to 17-6.

Nguyen scored the first two points in the second set and then had the first breakthrough run on her sixth serve with a run of four to bring the score out to 14-8. Winners evened out with both achieving nine. Nguyen used five drives as her predominant choice; the soft drive with all three coming on the two stroke was favored by Johnson.

No one really broke free in the third set. Johnson got the first point on a two stroke smash. But it was Nguyen who earned the first run, this time on her ninth serve to make it 14-11. And the smash was instrumental in this set for Nguyen. She had zero up to that final set. In set three she registered eight including six of her first nine winners on the run up to 14. Johnson had a resurgence matching that run with one of her own run of five to pull in front 16-14. At this stage of the set seven of her ten winners were on the two stroke. That means only three were in longer rallies. She would only garner one more the rest of the match after that lead. Nguyen initiated a string of seven straight alterations in service. First she faced a 19-17 deficit and got the bird back on an eleven stroke back hand hitting error in the net. That was the start of a four point run on serve number 13 in what I thought was the final point on an eleven stroke smash to the right. But they played on. Johnson got the side out, but the match ended on her next serve that sailed deep. All in all Johnson had six missed serves in the match to Nguyen’s one. Johnson was using what I would term a doubles line drive speed serve and that tended to go deep—three times. The other missed serves were short serve attempts.

Side outs favored Nguyen on the day at .613, but early on Johnson was dominant at .667. She did not get one side out in the second set on nine Nguyen services. The odd fact was Johnson had one more points overall and won the winners 34-25 in  a nearly 30 minute match.

Category	NGUYEN	JOHNSON
Side out	19/31-.613	14/31-.452
Longest side out string	4	4
3+ Runs	3	5
Longest point string	4	5
SERVING
First serve	3	1, 2
First point	2	1, 3
Service points	22	24
Serving %	51/52-.981	49/55-.891
Point generated off serve	.415	.444
POINTS	53	54
Points after 11	26	24
Points after own errors	11	16
Winners after own errors	4	13
STROKES	209	192
Strokes per point	3.943	3.556
5+ rallies (%)	18 (.340)	11 (.204)
2- rallies (%)	21 (.396)	25 (.463)
WINNERS	3-9-13=25	13-9-12=34
Aces	0	2
Blocks	0	1
Clears	5	8
Drives	6	4
Drops	2	4
Soft drives	4	11
Smashes	8	4
Even Stroke Winners	12	22
2nd Stroke Winners	9	16
Odd Stroke Winners	13	12
ERRORS	20	28
Deep	5	2
Net	13	14
Wide	1	6
Serve	1	6
Even stroke errors	11	8
2nd stroke errors	5	5
Odd stroke errors	9	20
WINNER LOCATION
Left	14	11
Right	11	23
Largest Lead	0, 6, 3	9, 0, 2
W:E Ratio	1.25	1.21
Margin		0.333
Set Point %	2/3-.667	½-.500
Time	27:27.91