Scots top Dons in PAL Bay Division tennis showdown

But with the temperature soaring into the high 80s Tuesday afternoon, the match was pushed back a half hour. That meant the No. 1 singles match between Carlmont sophomore Zoe Hendricks and Aragon freshman Mia Lo was suspended after the two split sets over nearly two-and-half hours.

But that outcome had no bearing on the final score. And in the end, Carlmont, the two-time defending Bay Division champs, is not ready to relinquish its crown as the Scots posted a convincing 5-1 win.

Most of the seven varsity matches featured a number of long rallies, which is not necessarily the best way to play in 80-plus degree weather.

“I saw a lot of 10-, 14-stroke rallies,” said Carlmont head coach Margaret Goldsmith. “It was very impressive. All the matches were great tennis. … I think play was slower today because of the heat.”

Did Goldsmith want her players to try to end the points quicker?

“It just depends,” Goldsmith said. “The ones that play tournaments … they’re probably used to it (playing in hot weather).

“It’s about who can fight the elements.”

Both Goldsmith and her Aragon counterpart, Dave Owdom, were surprised the match was played at all.

“At 3:30 (p.m.), it did not look like we were going to play,” Goldsmith said.

Said Owdom: “I’d had rather cancelled.”

But the match went forward and it was Carlmont (5-0 PAL Bay) that put the pressure on Aragon (4-1) early by winning the first sets at No. 3 doubles and No. 4 singles. Those two matches would be the first two points for the Scots as the No. 3 doubles team of Sruthi Sivaraman and Haeley Kwok, along with Amelie Du Chau at No. 4 singles, finished their matches at nearly the same time.

Sivaraman and Kwok cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win. Du Chau, however, had to work a little harder for her straight-set victory. Aragon’s Haley Chong raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first set, before Du Chau came storming back. She won the next six games to take the first set 6-3. She then won the first five games of the second to give her 11 straight games before Chong made a final stand.

But it wasn’t enough as Du Chau posted the 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Aragon got on the scoreboard with a win at No. 3 singles. Shanay Biouk was down 2-1 early in the first set, before getting a service hold a break for a 3-2 lead on her way to a 6-3, first-set win.

Biouk jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second and pushed the lead to 4-1 before Radhika Agrawal dug in and won a couple of games. But it simply delayed the inevitable as Biouk came away with a 6-3, 6-2 decision.

It would be the only win of the day for Aragon.

So was Owdom more disappointed or frustrated?

“I would say both,” he said.

Carlmont picked up its third team point at No. 2 singles where Megan Bence rallied from a set down to beat Aragon’s Ella Teng in a third-set, super tiebreaker. Teng seemed in control in the first set. Leading 3-2, Teng won the next three games to take the first set, 6-2.

But Bence seemed to flip some kind of switch and she dominated the second set, winning 6-0 to send it to the super tiebreak.

Bence, a four-year varsity player, took a 2-1 lead on her serve and never gave it back. But Teng didn’t go quietly. Down 7-3 in the race to 10, Teng gave herself a shot. Bence, up 9-6, had a chance to close out the match on her serve, only to see Teng break both and then had a chance to tie the tiebreak, down 9-8.

But she was mightily disappointed to hand Bence the win with a double fault to give the Scots a 3-1 lead with three matches left to play.

The completed ones went the Scots’ way. Carlmont secured the team win when the No. 1 doubles team of Avani Dixit and Chloe Rui posted a 6-3, 6-0 win for the fourth point.

The final two matches went to third-set super tiebreakers. Carlmont’s Maya Kacholiya Yashvi Shah managed to finish their match, beating Aragon’s Jessa Williams and Allison Newman, 6-3, 4-6, 10-4.

The No. 1 singles match was the last one going and they’ll have to finish at a later date. Carlmont’s Hendricks won the first set 7-5, but Aragon’s Lo answered back with a 6-4 win the second set before the match was suspended.

While Goldsmith thought her team would win the match, she didn’t expect the final score.

“I would love to expect that (a 6-1 win). But I thought for sure it would be 4-3,” Goldsmith said. “You just don’t know … who has a good day and who has a bad day.”