Peninsula Athletic League athletes playing for school, pride

If the matches don’t count, why is Hillsdale captain Camille Williamson proud to have been the first Knight off the court in the team’s first three matches?

No, these matches matter.

“Not keeping standings, I understand it,” said San Mateo head coach Bryan Jeong. “But (these matches) matter for school spirit. They’re giving their best. It is very competitive out of respect (for the game). They took each other seriously, as they should.”

If any team had an excuse for going through the motions, it would be the Bearcats, who currently don’t have enough players to field a full 10-player lineup. In Tuesday’s match, there was no No. 4 singles or No. 3 doubles matches because San Mateo currently has only eight players on the roster. This didn’t prevent the Bearcats from winning three of the five matches contested, however.

Jeong expects to get three players back in the next week or two. Until then, he’ll simply work with what he has, knowing that the goal isn’t necessarily to win in this bizarre season, but to lay the foundation for the fall 2021 season.

“I think the biggest thing we’ve been struggling with was bringing back the culture,” said Jeong, adding the team hadn’t been together since October of 2019.

“These past couple weeks, we’ve come together. I think they’ve been enjoying themselves.”

Hillsdale’s Williamson is certainly starting to enjoy her senior season. The four-year varsity player is glad to get a chance to play her final year of high school and so far is going out with a bang.

With her 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 3 singles, Williamson hopes to pump up the rest of the team by pocketing an early victory.

“I try to set a good example and end on a hype note,” Williamson said. “It’s kind of bittersweet. I didn’t think [my high school career] would end like this, but I’m happy to be out playing.”

The San Mateo No. 1 doubles team of Alicia Chan and Keaton Fritts earned San Mateo’s first point with a 6-2, 6-0 victory shortly after Williamson left the court.

Hillsdale earned a split of the doubles matches when Gurkiran Sohal and Emily Duncan posted a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2 doubles.

San Mateo went on to win the final two matches being played. At No. 2 singles, Katie Hong, who won the first set, but was down 3-2 in the second to Robyn Matsumoto. But Hong broke serve and then held as she went on to win the final four games of the set to clinch the victory, 6-3, 6-3.

The best match of the day came at No. 1 singles as Roser and Huang needed a second-set tiebreaker to settle things. Huang won the first set and was cruising to an easy straight-sets win as she won three consecutive games to turn a 3-2 deficit into a 5-3 lead.

But Roser did not go quietly. She broke back to close to 5-4 and then held serve to tie the set at 5-all and the two stayed on serve to force a tiebreaker. Huang jumped out to a quick 3-0 in the first-to-7 tiebreaker and went on to post a 7-2 decision to end the match, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).

“[The teams are] not taking anything for granted,” Jeong said. “Being sidelined for 14, 15 months, it absolutely means something to be out here.”

Girls’ golf

If the PAL was keeping score, the Bearcats would be 3-0 after winning back-to-back matches Monday and Tuesday.

San Mateo beat Mills for the second time in as many weeks, 177-191. For the third match in a row San Mateo’s Lindsey Huang shot the low score of the day. Playing just six holes at Poplar Creek, Huang shot a 4-over 27. She was followed by a 33 from Sage Tulabing, a 37 from Zoe Pang and a 39 by Julia Hetts.

Mills was led by Molly O’Dea, who shot a 32. Jadyn Gee improved on her score from a week ago, shooting a 37. Kiley Chow, a freshman, came in with a 38 for the Vikings.

Monday, San Mateo held off Hillsdale, 180-186. Again, it was Huang who led the way for the Bearcats, shooting a 2-over 23.