It’s a sunny Thursday afternoon on the court as Metea Valley arrives at Naperville Central for a tennis match against the Redhawks. Metea comes in on a winning streak following Tuesday’s contest against Naperville North, while Central is coming in off a conference loss to crosstown rival Naperville North. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
Metea starts on fire
The event begins with the one singles match between Mustang Carter Donnelly and Redhawk Kayen Basrai. Both opponents come back with long-distance returns, with Donnelly going for a swing pass for a point.
Basrai goes for the serve in this round, hitting the ball to Donnelly. The Mustang continues to dominate by hitting a hard backhand as the ball bounces on the court for Donnelly to win the first set.
Moving on to the second set, both teams come in with returns, but Basrai comes in with another backhand hit on the court. Donnelly goes on to win set two in three sets. Going to two singles is Redhawk Jason Cheng and Metea’s Royce Lalani. Both opponents come out swinging with backhand returns. Lalani jumps and hits the ball down hard for a point.
The match continues with Cheng earning a point by sending the ball low, going over Lalani’s head. In the second set, Lalani overpowers Cheng as he hits the ball down low towards the net. The Mustang goes on to win straight sets 6-2 and 6-1.
The Mustangs beat the Redhawks
Moving forward to one doubles, it’s Redhawks Jaithra Shreeram and Nick Tangedahl against Metea Valley’s Ameya Tyagi and Rish Railkar. The Mustangs get the ball bouncing right away from Tyagi, going for the return by hitting the ball down low, bouncing past the Redhawks, and securing the first set.
Set two is underway with both Railkar and Tyagi working together on the returns. Tyagi goes for a backhand return from Shreeram and gets the point. Tyagi and Railkar win in two straight sets.
Lastly, it’s the two doubles match with Redhawks Isaac Liu and Rohan Shah against Metea Valley’s Kaushik Nanduru and Henry Oyekanmi. The Mustangs get off to a fast start with Oyekanmi going for the early returns. Shah backhands to the Mustangs, but Nanduru goes for the return and scores for Metea.
The match continues for both teams with Oyekanmi going for a backhand return on Shah to close out the first set 6-4.
The second set is underway with long-distance backhand returns. Oyekanmi hits the ball over and overpowers Shah before he hits the ball to the net. This gives Metea Valley another 6-4 win for two doubles. The overall competition closes with a shutout as Metea Valley comes home with a 7-0 win over Naperville Central.
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