Decisive victory in first league match for women’s tennis

By Aydan Prime,
Bluedevilhub.com Staff–

The Davis High women’s tennis team came out of the gate at full speed in their 8-1 win over Elk Grove in their first league match.

“It’s always nice winning our first league match because it kind of sets the precedence of the season and gives us the upper competitive edge,” the teams coach Sally Hosley said.

For the majority of the team, defeating their opponents from Elk Grove took under an hour and a half; every match was over in only two sets.

Hosley said the match today was a “nice surprise” after Elk Grove came in second in the league last year. “Elk grove was a little bit deeper the last time we played them, but today I noticed that we are definitely deeper and we definitely have the upper hand,” Hosley said.

Sophomore Rebeca Englehard and junior Sherry Zheng were the first off the courts, winning their match as number three doubles with a score of 6-0, 6-0. The duo credits their win to their communication and friendship on and off the court.

“It was a pretty easy match. We high-fived a lot,” Zheng said.

Englehard and Zheng usually don’t play together, but dealt very well with the pressure of playing number three doubles and scored a win for the team. Both are ranked below the top twelve, but Hosley believes that anyone on her team is ready to step up and play in these league matches.

“The beauty of keeping our big team of 24 is that all of my bottom twelve can play in the top twelve. Today, I had to draw from two or three girls from the lower part of the ladder and they did superbly,” Hosley said.

Junior Elena Neale-Sacks was also able to step up from her normal position as number one doubles and play the number six seed in singles. She won in straight sets, 6-1, 6-0.

“Before I started playing I did feel a lot of pressure because I’m playing higher on the ladder than I normally do, but my opponent wasn’t too hard to beat. Once I started playing I was fine,” Neale-Sacks said.