TENNIS: Riverside Poly girls’ tennis fell to rival King High School.
By Jack Weggeland, Staff Writer
Riverside Poly girls’ tennis began the season with a hot start, winning seven of their nine non-league matches and a perfect record in the Inland Valley League.
Despite their successful start to the fall season, the team ran into trouble against rival King High School. This young, talented Poly team, who had beaten King the previous year, was not the one that showed up at this year’s meeting.
On October 12, the team traveled to King’s home courts. They realized King was out for blood, eager to earn revenge.
“The girls were excited about facing King. We know how they field a quality team each year and knew it would be a challenge,” Nicholas Mateljan, Poly girls’ tennis coach, stated. King proved just that as they showed their strength and shocked Poly as they captured a quick 4–2 lead after the first round. Poly attempted to rally for a comeback at the end of the second round, only down 5–7. At the end of the day, rival King high school handed Poly their second loss of the season with the final score being 6–12. “Since we beat King last year, we went out during the first round overconfident. [During the second and third rounds] we played passively and definitely did not play our best,” Makenzie Nelson (12), Poly varsity captain, expressed. “King’s team is good. We can’t discredit them, but we [started the match] expecting a different outcome,” Nelson added.
“King had the best doubles teams we have faced all season long. Because we haven’t faced many teams with strong depth in doubles, we weren’t adequately prepared for this match. This gave us experience that we needed for a strong playoff run,” Mateljan said . Despite the tough loss, the Poly girls tennis team was able to discover their strengths and their apparent weaknesses. This ultimately will allow them to continue to improve individually and as a team.