Lady Tigers score first tennis win
The Taos Lady Tigers tennis team earned its first win of the season versus the Valencia Lady Jaguars on Monday (April 18) by a score of 8-1, while the boys team lost their match against Valencia 1-8.
Results of girls doubles tennis
• Marlena Gerken and Violet Kirshbaum (Taos) defeated Antigone Genson and Preslee Eylicio (Valencia), 6-4, 6-0.
• Selena Bayles and Chloe MacHardy (Taos) defeated Jenny Schaefer and Lily Genson (Valencia), 6-1, 6-1.
• Simone Salazar and Sienna Sategna-Chambers (Taos) defeated Karleigh Gibson and Parker (Valencia), by default.
The Taos Tigers tennis team had a diametrically opposed performance from the Lady Tigers tennis team. Lucas Backer and Perry Kushner both needed to seek a big bag of ice to deal with bodily pain post-match. Ari Kolman pulled out the only victory for the Tigers.
Results of the boys singles tennis
• Robbie Gersten (Taos) lost to Xavier Castillo (Valencia), 2-6, 1-6. Lucas Backer (Taos) lost to Isaiah Castillo (Valencia), 1-6, 0-6.
• Asher Maddox (Taos) lost to Danny Altobello (Valencia) 1-6, 3-6.Ben Currey (Taos) lost to Nick Torres (Valencia), 1-6, 1-6.
• Ari Kolman (Taos) defeated Victor Ramirez (Valencia) 7-5, 6-3.
• Perry Kushner (Taos) lost to Phakin Vipasdamrongkul (Valencia) 1-6, 3-6.
Last week, on Thursday (April 14), Taos faced off against Los Alamos.
Results of girls tennis
• Marlena Gerken (Taos) lost to Kate McDonald (Los Alamos), 0-6,
1-6.
• Corrina Harrower (Taos) lost to Olivia Koo (Los Alamos), 0-6, 0-6.
• Kai Sampere (Taos) lost to Veronica Sofia 0-6, 0-6.
• Angie Burn Diaz (Taos) lost to Lola Roelofs (Los Alamos), 3-6, 0-6.
• Anabelle Caldwell (Taos) defeated Naomi Hanks (Los Alamos)
3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
• Selena Bayles (Taos) defeated Riley Rheinheimer (Los Alamos) 6-3, 6-1.
In the top flight match between Gerken and Kate Mcdonald, McDonald had a quicker swing of the racket that involved a flick of the wrist. Gerken’s swing was more labored, incorporating her full body to get into a swinging motion, allowing McDonald time to anticipate where the ball might go. Gerken struggled landing the first serve, and she double-faulted often.
Results of girls doubles
• Gerken and Harrower (Taos) lost to Koo and Sofia (Los Alamos), 1-6, 0-6.
• Bayles and Chloe MacHardy (Taos) defeated Rheinheimer and Sabrina Kelley (Los Alamos), 6-2,
6-2.
Results of the boys singles tennis
• Kushner (Taos) lost to Samson O’Sullivan (Los Alamos) 2-6, 1-6. Kolman (Taos) lost to Axel Nikklason (Los Alamos), 0-6, 1-6.
• Currey (Taos) lost to Cameron McDonald (Los Alamos) 0-6, 2-6.
• Maddox (Taos) lost to Ryan Sood (Los Alamos), 1-6, 3-6.
• Backer (Taos) lost to Michael Witowski (Los Alamos), 2-6, 2-6.
• Gersten (Taos) defeated Nicholas Witowski (Los Alamos), 2-6, 6-3, (8) tiebreak.
Play by play of Backer versus Mike Witowski:
IN THE FIRST SET, THE FIRST GAME.
0-15, 15-15, at this point Backer hits a good passing shot past Witowski as coach Kurt Edelbrock is making the rounds at Quail Ridge. Edelbrock congratulates Backer’s “nice passing shot”, 30-15. Backer double faults, 30-30. Down 30-40, Backer hits a forearm to the net.
GAME: 0-1.
Backer can’t return Witowski’s serve, 0-15. Backer volleys well, but then gets passed on the right, 0-30. Backer hits the return long 0-40. Would go on to lose game 2.
GAME: 0-2
In the third game he double faults to lose the game.
GAME 0-3.
Witowski loses a few points but powerful forearms bring it back to 30-30. Backer mishits, 30-40. Then Backer can’t make proper contact on a Witowski lob.
GAME: 0-4
Witowski beams it wide out of bounds, 0-15. Backer hits it long, 15-15. Witowski’s backhand is not strong enough to reach the net, 15-30. Witowski is down 30-40 but forces deuce after being forced out wide by Backer, but recovers and wins the point with a backhand. With an Ad-in for Witowski, Backer incorporates a drop shot to force deuce again. The two players play out the deuce for about 10 minutes until Witowski mishits a ball and then, on the point afterwards, gets a lucky bounce off of the net, and Backer momentarily loses sight of it, but then volleys to win the game.
GAME: 1-4.
Witowski wins game five, even though Backer crushed a few attempted lobs from Witowski.
GAME: 1-5.
Backer comes in on a short ball but hits the net, 0-15. Witowski hits a ball wide out of bounds, 15-15. Witowski tries to lob it but Backer jumps high and spikes it away from Witowski, 30-15. Witowski hits the net and gets a good bounce over, but it’s slightly wide. 40-15. He forces deuce. Witowski started hitting balls high and deeper near the baseline but Backer reacted well and kept hitting the ball off of the bounce while backpedaling and won his second game of the set.
GAME: 2-5
Up 40-30, Witowski won the game and the set with a strong serve.
Backer lost the second set in the same manner, 2-6.
In the court next to the second flight match between Backer and Mike Witowski, Gersten and Nicholas Witowski were going at it in the top flight match for the boys. From afar, you could see the heavy top spin and slicing that was being imparted upon the tennis ball by both players. Everything about their play seemed intentional, tactical tennis. When both players came close to the net, and they’d fire shots at one another at
point-blank range, Witowski would often come out victorious between his lightning-quick reaction time, the length of his wingspan, and his volleying technique. He dominated the first set, 6-2.
Most of Gersten’s matches this season have gone the distance, whether he’s up or down after the first set, and this was no exception.
The definitive play of the second set was when Witowski hit a ball deep into the left corner and Gersten sprinted to catch up to the ball (before it would hit the fence) and hit an impressive defensive
shot to get back into the point. Witowski had a chance to end the point, since the ball came back in a perfect position for a spike but he hit it into the net. Gersten was hustling more and making more moves. In this instance he was rewarded for it. Witowski went from being the aggressor to playing mostly defense, his returns in rallies getting shorter.
The sun was setting, the wind was still a nuisance, and a crowd started to gather around the final match of the evening. Gersten forced a tiebreaker.
Unforced errors from Witowski put him in a hole, down by four points to Gersten. He was able to bring it within one point, but eventually lost the tiebreaker on a ball that was hit long on the baseline.
Coach Edelbrock praised Gersten, calling him a “very smart player.”
In a post game interview, Los Alamos coach David Hector talked about the game plan for Witowski in the second set and also praised Gersten.
“So second set when he [Gersten] comes to net, lob, don’t try to power past him or anything,” he said. “He’s tall [Witowski] he’s got to bend his knees. Get up under the ball, especially with his grip and his forehand, heavy topspin forehand, you gotta get low. Serve and volley. Serve, come right to net, just expect every first serve comes in and immediately try to volley. So serve volley, get the point over, don’t extend it. Y’all’s one [Gersten] has a lot of good direction so if he starts hitting down the line when you’re volleying then just stay back and rally with him and let him make mistakes.”
“He [Witowski] comes to practice a lot and you know like I’ll stay late to work with him but yeah, he’s got a real good head on his shoulders and y’all’s one [Gersten] is real good too.”