ST. PAUL CENTRAL 4, EDEN PRAIRIE 3

Central traveled to Eden Prairie on a cold rainy Monday to edge out the Eagles 4-3. Central pieced together their win by taking the book end singles (first and fourth) and then the last two doubles. Only one match went the distance and that went to the hosts at first singles. The EP duo of Hannah Bley and Kelly Meyer rallied after losing the first to take the next two by the thin slice of two points. Bley & Meyer were the only players to win in extra points on the day. Overall there were six sets that were decided by two points. Ki Seng Xiong, at fourth singles, won both sets by two points. The margins at both singles and doubles were under four points indicating the narrow gap between these two teams.

SINGLES
1. May Garvey, C def Ashley Nelson 21-19, 21-14
2. Tracey Yang, EP def Malee Yang 21-13, 21-17
3. Sanjana Seethamraju, EP def Annika Tuma 21-16, 21-15
4. Ki Seng Xiong, C def Rachelle Johnson 21-19, 21-19

DOUBLES
1. Hannah Bley/Kelly Meyer, EP def Claudia Feilmeyer/Xai Xiong 15-21, 22-20, 21-19
2. Jada Brown/Julia Schultz, C def Rachel Ruhlin/Caroline Odegard 21-15, 21-19
3. Jenny Lee/Pader Thao, C def Roshina Mohamed Rafee/Kate Samide 21-16, 21-14

BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: tied 2-2 .500
Games: tied 4-4 .500
points: Eden Prairie 155-145 .517
decided by 10+: none
decided by 3-: Central 3-0 1.000
margin: Eden Prairie 1.25
DOUBLES
Matches: Central 2-1 .667
Games: Central 5-2 .714
points: Central 144-122 .541
decided by 10+: none
decided by 3-: Eden Prairie 2-1 .667
margin: 3.14

FIRST SINGLES

May GARVEY 2, Ashley NELSON 0
(21-19, 21-14)

This match featured the two players that fought it out for third place in the state tournament. Central’s May Garvey, as she did at the state tournament, ended up with the win. Garvey’s side out game prevented Nelson from getting any traction in scoring. Nelson was only able to convert on four services all day. Nelson struggled from the service line in the first set with five errors on 17 attempts (or 70.6% serving). Most of those serves sailed deep (as did Garvey’s missed serves). Garvey also had a plus seven advantage in winners. Both players, known for their power game, had five smashes each. Garvey’s winner advantage came at clears and the soft drives, in each case three better than Nelson.

Nelson grabbed the early lead at 6-4 with the first run of three for the day. Garvey inched in front after her first run of three (9-8). Both runs got there start on missed serves. Garvey’s second run (started again by a missed serve) put her up four (14-10). Nelson stormed back to tie the game at 17 with a run of five. Garvey allowed two deep aces to drop thinking they were out as Nelson had already missed three deep serves in the set. A three stroke drive wide gave the bird back to Garvey. A short ace gave her the two point margin. Both players traded hitting errors to end the set.

Garvey took control of the second set with the first run of three capped by a three stroke smash (12-8). A run of five two services later gave Garvey a nine point advantage (19-10). At this point Garvey had shut down Nelson’s service game allowing only one point on Nelson’s sixth service. Nearly echoing the first set, Nelson strung together a run of four on her tenth service capped by a three stroke drop to cut the margin to 19-14. Garvey closed out with a four stroke drop of her own to get the bird back. A clear attempt went wide on the next serve to end the match.

My scoring had Nelson one point less in the first set.

Category	GARVEY	NELSON
Side out	18/22-.818	10/23-.435
3+ Runs	7	6
Longest point string	5	5
Service points	20	10
Overall points	42	32
Points after 11	20	15
Points after own errors	13	7
Strokes	121	130
Strokes per point	2.88	4.06
5+ rallies	9	7
2- rallies	19	11
WINNERS	21	14
Aces	3	2
Blocks	0	0
Clears	3	0
Drives	3	3
Drops	3	3
Soft drives	4	1
Smashes	5	5
ERRORS	18	21
Ceiling	0	2
Deep	4	2
Net	6	7
Wide	4	4
Serve	4	6
W:E Ratio	1.17	0.67
Margin	4.50
Set Point %	2/2-1.000
Time	14:35.02