Thanks to Maranatha for this story:

Girls Tennis:

Maranatha’s near decade-long reign over the Olympic League’s girls tennis scene has come to an end.

There’s a new sheriff in town, the Geffen UCLA Bruins.

The Lady Minutemen were no match for the Bruins, who were superior from top to bottom.

There were a few close sets, however, led by MHS’s #1 singles, Stella Hsieh, who garnered Maranatha’s only point, with a 6-2 victory over, Geffen’s Maya Kamanger in the second round.

Hsieh lost, 2-6 to the Bruins’ #1, Jenelle Liu, in a high quality slugfest that was closer than the score indicates.

The set of the day was the dogfight between Hsieh and Rachel Hofert, a near hour-long set that Hofert won, 7-6(3).

After dropping the first 3 games (2 at sudden-death deuce), Hsieh buckled down to claw her way back to a 4-3 lead. It was a see-saw affair the rest of the way.

No. 1 doubles, Amanda Yee/Kasey McCoy, who continue to progress in their new partnership, had two winnable sets (4-6, 3-6), but are still figuring out how to finish and close out sets as a team.

On the bright side for the Lady Minutemen is the fact that the entire team continues to show improvement.

No. 2 singles, Audrey Loh, gave Liu a scare before losing, 3-6.

And while the rest of the scores from the rest of the team weren’t close, each player to a person continued to take steps forward.

Whether they will put in the work it will take to give Maranatha a fighting chance for a playoff berth remains to be seen.

Only time will tell that story.

Maranatha (3-4, 0-1) will host the Warriors of Heritage Christian on Tuesday at Whittier Narrows Tennis Center.