MATH & SCIENCE 7, PARK CENTER 0
Math & Science added a fourth victory to their season with a sweep over Park Center at home on Tuesday. It marked their second straight win this week. On Monday the Dragons traveled to Como Park and surprised the Cougars with a 4-3 win. This was PC’s first match after spring break last week.
Today the Pirates were unable to gain one set in the loss. Third singles Suzan Lee Solima was able to push her second set loss to Anya Mehrotra to extra points—at 28-26. That was the only set that was decided by three or less. Half of the sets were decided by over ten points. The M&S doubles were dominant with an average margin of 13.333 points. PC singles fared somewhat better with 7.625 margins.
M&S now is 4-2 on the year. PC is 1-3.
I have now charted 16 of the 32 teams—-halfway done—the glass is half full.
SINGLES
1 Emily Balandin, M&S def Angela Yang 21-4, 21-16
2 Vivian Jayanth, M&S def Hava Kontae 21-13, 21-10
3 Anya Mehrotra, M&S def Suzan Lee Solima 21-12, 28-26
4 Chaarvi Kesharwani, M&S def Muki Yang 21-16, 21-17
DOUBLES
1 Sanjana Tatikonda / Sathvika Tatikonda, M&S def Zalou Vang / Vera Yang 21-4, 21-5
2 Sahasra Thodupunoori / Mihira Kanukurthy, M&S def Linda Thao / Nikita Yang 21-9, 21-12
3 Shrestha Vuppu / Grishma Maddela, M&S def Audrey Xiong / Tiffini Yang 21-8, 21-8
BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: Math & Science 4-0 1.000
Games: Math & Science 8-0 1.000
points: Math & Science 175-114 .606
Set 1 points: Math & Science 84-45 .651
Set 2 points: Math & Science 91-69 .569
decided by 10+: Math & Science 2-0 1.000
decided by 3-: Math & Science 1-0 1.000
margin: Math & Science 7.625
DOUBLES
Matches: Math & Science 3-0 1.000
Games: Math & Science 6-0 1.000
points: Math & Science 126-46 .733
Set 1 points: Math & Science 63-21 .750
Set 2 points: Math & Science 63-25 .716
decided by 10+: Math & Science 5-0 1.000
decided by 3-: none
margin: Math & Science 13.333
FIRST SINGLES
Emily BALANDIN 2, Angela YANG 0
(reported 21-4, 21-16 charted 21-5, 21-18)
It was a battle of a veteran vs youngster at first singles with the five-year veteran Emily Balandin of Math & Science clamping down on freshman Angela Yang of Park Center in a match that lasted 12 minutes. Balandin, in her third year as first singles, held Yang, in her second year at first singles in the second year PC program to 13 winners while scoring 18. The big difference came on side outs with Balandin getting Yang off serve .778; and limiting her own errors to 10 while exploiting Yang’s 24 errors.
The first set saw Balandin gain four runs, her first on her third service. While Balandin scored on five of her six services, Yang was stymied on each service. Two themes shined through in this set: Balandin had six drops that scored in her eight total winners, while Yang had hitting errors on the two stroke on five of her 13 errors. Most of those two stroke errors were on soft drives that proved too soft…they did not clear the net.
Things changed in the second set. The match tended to go back and forth early. There were nine straight side outs with a nine all tie the result. Balandin broke free with the first run on her tenth serve. That pushed the score to 14-10. She tacked on her second run (and just like the first run started with a missed serve that was wide) to make it 19-12. Yang did get a soft drive winner on her second stroke to start her first run and she added two more winners to close to 19-15. She had one more run in her racquet holding off match point three times before succumbing 21-18 on a three stroke soft drive hitting error in the net.
Balandin is now 2-3 on the year. Yang’s record matches PC’s at 1-3.
| Category | BALANDIN | YANG |
| Side out | 14/18-.778 | 8/19-.421 |
| Longest side out string | 7 | 4 |
| 3+ Runs | 6 | 2 |
| Longest point string | 7 | 3 |
| SERVING | ||
| First serve | 1, 2 | — |
| First point | 1 | 2 |
| Service points | 24 | 5 |
| Serving % | 40 / 42-.952 | 18 / 23-.783 |
| Point generated off serve | .571 | .217 |
| POINTS | 42 | 23 |
| Points after 11 | 20 | 9 |
| Points after own errors | 7 | 9 |
| Winners after own errors | 2 | 4 |
| STROKES | 138 | 70 |
| Strokes per point | 3.286 | 3.043 |
| 5+ rallies (%) | 10 | 2 |
| 2- rallies (%) | 17 | 7 |
| WINNERS | 18 | 13 |
| Aces | 2 | 0 |
| Blocks | 1 | 0 |
| Clears | 0 | 1 |
| Drives | 1 | 1 |
| Drops | 9 | 0 |
| Soft drives | 1 | 6 |
| Smashes | 4 | 5 |
| Even Stroke Winners | 6 | 7 |
| 2nd Stroke Winners | 1 | 3 |
| Odd Stroke Winners | 12 | 6 |
| ERRORS | 10 | 24 |
| Deep | 3 | 0 |
| Net | 4 | 14 |
| Wide | 1 | 5 |
| Serve | 2 | 5 |
| Even stroke errors | 2 | 13 |
| 2nd stroke errors | 1 | 9 |
| Odd stroke errors | 8 | 11 |
| WINNER LOCATION | ||
| Left | 8 | 8 |
| Right | 10 | 5 |
| Largest Lead | 16, 6 | 0, 1 |
| W:E Ratio | 1.800 | 0.542 |
| Margin | 9.500 | |
| Set Point % | 2/4-.500 | |
| Time | 12:10.69 |