HIGHLAND PARK 7, CENTRAL 0
Highland Park took the brooms to Central on Monday at HP. The Scots exceeded their win totals at singles for the year. Prior to this match they had three victories in singles. Today that bested that with four. Central had to adjust their lineup and that was a factor in the sweep. Number one singles Rose Braun had prior commitments and was unable to play. That meant players had to “play up.” Only Anne Wallace at third singles was able to prolong her match with Nahomi Aregawi to three sets. Wallace won in extra points in the first set before Aregawi prevailed. Three times in singles the Scots held the Minutemen to single digits. The HP doubles held Central to two sets with single digits. #2 rated Alice Verbrugge and Violet Solem Valentine won their match up with Cathy Hang and Marina Chang holding the Central pair to 9.5 points per set. The HP doubles bested the margins of the singles contingent 9.167 to 8.333.
Central moves to 2-4 in the St. Paul conference race, same as HP. Central is 4-4 overall. HP is 2-5 for the season.
I now have charted 14 of the 32 teams (43.8%).
SINGLES
1 Nica Johnson, HP def Kaitlyn Galeazzi 21-8, 21-14
2 Birtukuan Aregawi, HP def Evelyn Doran 21-10, 21-12
3 Nahomi Aregawi, HP def Anne Wallace 20-22, 21-16, 21-15
4 Charlotte Bistodeau, HP def Lucy Bodling 21-10, 21-6
DOUBLES
1 Alice Verbrugge / Violet Solem Valentine, HP def Cathy Hang / Marina Chang 21-7, 21-12
2 Abby Putz / Julia Yang, HP def Jia Becker / Annabelle Chan 21-18, 21-16
3 Natalia Gercheva / Juistina Than, HP def Mio Onizuka / Nkaojai Yang 21-11, 21-7
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 8-1 .889
points: Highland Park 188-113 .625
Set 1 points: Highland Park 83-50 .624
Set 2 points: Highland Park 84-48 .636
Set 3 points: Highland Park 21-15 .583
decided by 10+: Highland Park 4-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Central 1-0 1.000
margin: Highland Park 8.333
DOUBLES
Matches: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
Games: Highland Park 6-0 1.000
points: Highland Park 126-71 .640
Set 1 points: Highland Park 63-36 .636
Set 2 points: Highland Park 63-35 .643
decided by 10+: Highland Park 3-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Highland Park 1-0 1.000
margin: Highland Park 9.167
FIRST SINGLES
Nica JOHNSON 2, Kaitlyn GALEAZZI 0
(reported 21-8, 21-14 charted 21-8, 20-14)
Highland’s Nica Johnson, ranked #7 in the latest poll, swept Kaitlyn Galeazzi to move to 3-4 on the year. Galeazzi, usually in the second slot at singles, moved up to first singles due to Rose Braun’s prior commitments. Johnson took advantage of that switch with a solid side out game in the first set and tripling the amount of winners on the day. Johnson held Galeazzi to only six winners total and did not allow a smash to land. I am not sure if there was a smash attempted by Galeazzi as Johnson kept the bird low and flat. When she did loft it, it was to the back line which landed for seven points on the day. That was usually preceded by moving Galeazzi to the net.
Johnson opened the match with four straight side outs on Galeazzi and enjoyed an avalanche of points on her third service which created a vast separation. The score was 2-2 when Johnson got the bird back at 3-2 and then tacked on eleven more for a steep 13-2 lead. In that run there were only three winners for Johnson with most points coming from hitting errors in the net (five of the seven). In set one Johnson had six clears of her nine winners while Galeazzi had two total winners.
Galeazzi earned the first run of the second set and that gave her a 5-3 lead after her third service. Johnson on her next service came up with four straight to take the lead and she never trailed again. Johnson had two straight aces on short serves to make it 11-7. She added two more runs with the final one ending the match.
Both players were susceptible to errors with Johnson racking up four missed serves in the second set alone while Galeazzi had a pair. Winners again went to Johnson 12-4 in this set, but the Scot went to her toolbox and utilized each category with no dominant winner which kept Galeazzi off balance. Somehow during the second set the count got off track. I charted 20-14 for the final.
Galeazzi is 4-4 on the year.
| Category | JOHNSON | GALEAZZI |
| Side out | 10/15-.667 | 6/16-.375 |
| Longest side out string | 4 | 2 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 3 |
| Longest point string | 11 | 3 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 2 | 1 |
| First point | 1 | 2 |
| Service points | 26 | 7 |
| Serving % | 37/ 41-.902 | 18/ 22-.818 |
| Point generated off serve | .634 | .318 |
| POINTS | 41 | 22 |
| Points after 11 | 19 | 13 |
| Points after own errors | 11 | 5 |
| Winners after own errors | 5 | 0 |
| STROKES | 142 | 88 |
| Strokes per point | 3.463 | 4.000 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 13 | 9 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 17 | 7 |
| WINNERS | 21 | 6 |
| Aces | 2 | 1 |
| Blocks | 1 | 0 |
| Clears | 7 | 0 |
| Drives | 5 | 2 |
| Drops | 1 | 2 |
| Soft drives | 3 | 1 |
| Smashes | 2 | 0 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 6 | 2 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 4 | 1 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 15 | 4 |
| ERRORS | 16 | 20 |
| Deep | 2 | 1 |
| Net | 8 | 10 |
| Wide | 2 | 5 |
| Serve | 4 | 4 |
| Even stroke errors | 3 | 11 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 1 | 7 |
| Odd stroke errors | 13 | 9 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 12 | 4 |
| Right | 9 | 2 |
| Largest Lead | 13, 6 | 0, 2 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.313 | 0.300 |
| Margin | 9.5 | |
| Set Point % | 2/2-1.000 | |
| Time | 15:39.65 |