Photo of Natalie Arminak courtesy of Amanda Lin
Thanks to Maranatha coach Arthur Hsieh for this report
Girls Tennis:
Maranatha Head Coach Arthur Hsieh knew going into the season that there would be a lot of growing pains for his squad this season.
Almost everything you’d expect in a young and inexperienced team was on display today in the nearly four-hour contest.
Mental, physical, and emotional ebbs and flows characterized much of today’s performance by Maranatha, with the exception of senior captain, Stella Hsieh, who once again dominated her opponents (6-0, 6-0, 6-1).
In fact, it was the singles squad that carried the load, with sophomore, Natalie Arminak, and freshman, Kathryn Khalil, duplicating their performances from Tuesday’s win against Pasadena, winning 2 sets (6-3, 7-6) and 1 set (6-1) respectively.
It was MHS’s doubles lineup that wasn’t able to get the job done, garnering only 1 set on the afternoon.
Freshmen Mia Huang and Mia Su showed flashes of brilliance, earning a convincing 6-0 victory in the opening round; but they also showed their youthful inconsistency, losing 6-0, 6-0 in the following two sets.
Senior captain, Kasey McCoy, and sophomore partner, Esmee Eaton, came up just shy in each of their sets (6-7, 4-6, 6-7).
They had many opportunities to win each set, but are still developing the ability to close out matches against decent opponents.
Sophomores Nelli Breuer and Marie Wolfrum were also swept (2-6, 4-6, 0-6), but showed potential.
Coach Hsieh believes Maranatha will have a strong team in two years.
The question for this year’s team is whether the underclassmen will have the drive and motivation to improve and mature quickly enough this season to contend for an Olympic League title and send seniors Hsieh and McCoy off as league champions.
The remainder of the season will tell that story.
Maranatha’s nonleague schedule gets significantly tougher next week, as they travel to the Mark Keppel Aztecs on Tuesday at 3:15 p.m.
Two days later, MHS will battle an even stronger South Pasadena Tigers program.
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