By: Rich Fisher
Like the rest of the high school sporting world, the South Brunswick High girls’ tennis team pressed on in the wake of last week’s tragedy, and the Vikings were rewarded with their first victory of the young season.
South rolled to a 5-0 win over Edison Thursday, as Kalpana Sampale, Sandhya Prasad and Kareisha Questel all posted singles victories, while Kirthika Sutharanam-Megha Parikh and Netra Prasad-Nisha Dholakia scored doubles victories.
At second doubles, Dholakia was filling in for Brittany McMurrey, who missed the match with illness.
"We played well against Edison," said coach Barbara Whitman, whose team raised its record to 1-2. "We’re solid across the board and we’ll do well against a lot of the teams in the conference based on how we did against Edison.
"It felt good to win, it was good motivator. We put in a lot of effort and we had two tough matches right away, which always helps."
The Vikings opened with two talented teams, falling to J.P. Stevens and powerful East Brunswick. But Whitman feels those contests will only help as the season unfolds.
"Certainly when you play people that are very good you always improve your own game," Whitman said. "Even when you lose, there is always something to gain as a player."
In the loss to East Brunswick, the second doubles team of McMurrey-Prasad played tough before losing 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) to Barri Frankfurter-Christine Munteanu.
"They played well, that was a good match for them," Whitman said. "And Kuppy (Sampale) played well at first singles."
Whitman said her players have reacted to competition as well as possible in the shadow of the terrorist bombings, saying that the matches have been a welcome relief for the girls.
"You have priorities, and you really think about what the priorities in life are," the coach you said. "You think about being able to be on a team, coming to practice, being healthy and safe is what really matters. Being able to do these kind of things that the high school allow the kids to do.
"I think it’s been good therapy. We did have one person on the team who had a relative (in the bombing), but I think the girls are all glad to be in a group and we think about everybody who is suffering."
Unless the Vikes can do some quick-footed re-scheduling, the schedule will remain barren this week. Whitman was scheduled to attend a conference in Chicago today (Thursday) and Friday, so no matches were scheduled. The conference was postponed, and the coach hopes to find a game for Friday.
"One of these days we’ll get into that rhythm of playing some matches," Whitman said. "But we’re still practicing and the girls are working hard. They’ve been playing since August, so we gave them a couple days off this week for a little break."
South Brunswick’s next scheduled match is at Monroe on Tuesday.

