Mills has to work for win

The Wildcats have been every bit as dominant as Mills. Woodside had lost only 11 matches — including a 5-2 loss to the Vikings — as they entered Tuesday one game behind Mills for the top spot in the Ocean Division standings.

And for the first time this season, the Vikings were pushed — hard. But showing the heart of a champion, Mills rallied to keep its undefeated streak intact with a hard-fought 4-2 win over the Wildcats.

“They’ve certainly improved since last time,” said Mills head coach John Daquioag said of the Woodside squad. “(Woodside co-head coaches Lauren Denenberg and Kim Grant) are great coaches. We didn’t take [the Wildcats] lightly.

“(Victory) is never a given — as you can tell, it’s 7 o’clock at night.”

Light became an issue Tuesday. The final two matches of the day — No. 2 and No. 3 doubles — were finished almost in darkness, certainly dark enough to clearly see a nearly full moon in the sky and dark enough to suspended the No. 3 doubles match late in the second set.

Woodside has only five tennis courts and with seven varsity matched needing to be played, the final two doubles matches had to wait until other matches finished. With the days getting shorter, it became a race against daylight.

That suspended match won’t need to be finished, however, because the Vikings had already clinched the team match with a win at No. 2 doubles that gave them that crucial, clinching fourth team point.

And there was certainly a question if that match would finish, as the Mills duo of Emily Anning and Moe Ohnogi dropped the first set to Natalie Arai and Isabella Shivananda, 2-6.

But the Vikings’ tandem rallied in the second set, winning 6-4 and sending the match to a super tiebreaker, third set.

Anning and Ohnogi jumped out a to 5-1 lead in the first-to-10 tiebreaker. They had to weather a mini rally from Arai and Shivanda, who closed to 6-4, but Anning and Ohnogi eventually pulled a 10-5 decision to clinch the match for the Vikings.

Mills was a game away from making it a 5-2 final score as the No. 3 doubles team of Meagan So and Avery Xiao were a game away from a straight-set win.

It would have been appropriate, considering the Vikings’ pair was close to being down a set. Woodside’s Lucille Palmer and Grace Manuel had a 5-3 lead in the first set, but So and Xiao won four games in a row to take the set.

The match was eventually abandoned with Mills leading 5-2 in the second set.

While Mills came away with the victory, it was anything but easy as Woodside took a first-set lead in the first five matches of the day. Camilla Jerng kept that advantage at No. 1 singles for Woodside, coming off the court first with a 6-0, 6-1.

But Mills tied the team score with Maya Dolmage-Heath posting a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles. Madeline Lee gave the Wildcats the lead back with a 6-1, 6-3 victory at No. 4 singles, but Mills won the next two matches off the courts — the No. 1 doubles team of Taylor Gee and Natalie Cheng won 6-4, 6-2 to tie the match at 2-all, and when Kaylee Chang came up with a win 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 win at No. 2 singles, it gave the Vikings a 3-2 team lead with the two doubles matches left to play.

“It was a lot closer (than the first time we played them),” said Woodside coach Denenberg. “The girls had their heads in the game.”