After last week’s heat wiped out the opening week of the conference schedule, Metea Valley and Naperville North kick off their first DVC match on a warm Tuesday afternoon in Aurora. The Mustangs ended up hanging on for a tight 4-3 team victory. This highlight is sponsored by BMO.
The Huskies get started with a singles win
We start the action off with the two singles matches, with Mustang Diya Sundar against Naperville North’s Makaelynn Woller-Li. The Huskie gets off to a good start by sending a backhand return past the Mustang on the blue for a point. Woller-Li plays in control throughout, overpowering her opponent for a two-set victory.
Lily Tang gets the Mustangs on the board
Moving on to one singles, Anda Elezi of Naperville North goes up against Lily Tang. Elezi continues to hold her own in the match with back-and-forth returns. The Huskie throws a backhand return back as the ball bounces on blue. Elezi secures the point when Tang’s shot sails out of bounds.
Tang fights back after a brief rally as she gets a backhand that kisses the line in the corner to help her take the first set.
The Mustang holds her ground in set two by hitting the ball upward and gets a high bounce that Elezi can’t reach high enough to hit, giving Tang the point. The Mustang goes on to win two sets.
From singles to doubles, the number-one matchup is underway, with North’s Zannah Chien and Esther Forster facing the Mustangs’ Leah Liu and Smitha Sathya.
The Huskies start with a serve as Liu gets the Mustangs on the board by hitting a hard backhand that lands between the Huskies. The Mustangs continue to dominate with Sathya sending another good return past the Huskies.
Liu backs her partner with a hard backhand return for another point. Chien and Forster are able to score a point of their own with a nice return, but the Mustangs win both sets to gain the edge on the team scoreboard.
The final match of the day comes from two doubles between the Huskies pairing of Neiva Bandyopadhyay and Emma Eun and Metea’s Katie Madden and Tvisha Shah.
Naperville North adds another doubles win
The Huskies work together in this set with good returns as Bandyopadhyay sends a backhand return over for a point.
The match continues with the Mustangs coming back, with Shah sending to Neiva. The Huskie sends the ball over, but Madden fires back and scores.
The matchup needs to be decided in a third-set tiebreaker. Eun and Bandyopadhyay work together to gain the edge, with Bandyopadhyay firing back at Shah, who hits the net with her return, securing a win for the Huskies in set three.
After a highly contested battle on the courts, Metea Valley narrowly wins the DVC opener 4-3 over Naperville North.
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