Little Tigers tennis better than expected

By: Justin Feil
   This season is supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Princeton High girls’ tennis team. Five starters left from a team that went 17-4 and won the Colonial Valley Conference’s Valley Division title, and expectations were a bit lower going into the year and not helped by a 3-2 start.
   "Our goals this year were to make states and to try to defend our Valley Division crown," said PHS head coach David Black. "Right now, we’re succeeding at both levels."
   It’s a young Little Tiger team, but it played like veterans to defeat their biggest threat to both, the West Windsor-Plainsboro High North squad, 3-2, Monday at Princeton.
   It moved PHS to 4-2 before the Little Tigers fell, 3-2, to WW-P South on Tuesday for the season and clinched a berth in the state tournament, something that appeared in great jeopardy when the week began. The Little Tigers had been 3-2, and with matches against the Knights and Pirates, they were on the edge of falling under .500 by Wednesday’s state tournament entry cut-off for the first time in more than 30 years. While there are still plenty of CVC matches remaining, Monday’s win also gave the Little Tigers an early lead in the Valley race.
   The Princeton players did not even know the enormity of the moment as they celebrated in the Monday twilight after two of Princeton’s youngest players, Laura Paine and Garima Bhatt, came up with a three-set win that didn’t end until 6:58 p.m., nearly three hours after it began.
   "The last set, we were jumping up and down, we were so pumped," said Paine, a sophomore, who played on the JV team a year ago. "It was the best feeling."
   PHS also got wins from Frances Wong at third singles and Claire Mulvey at second singles. Mulvey also went three sets, winning, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3, over Stephanie Chen. North had victories from first singles Christine Su and from the first doubles team of Jessica Chen and Lauren Cheatham, who also won a three-set match.
   But with all the other matches wrapped up, it came down to Paine and Bhatt, who were oblivious to what was at stake.
   "I had no idea what was going on," said Bhatt, a freshman. "I thought Claire lost. I just wanted to try to win this one."
   It wasn’t easy. Bhatt and Paine had trailed, 5-2, in the third set before rallying to win the final five games and take the match, 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, in the tightest match of the day.
   "This is the first win Laura and I had this season," said Bhatt of the second doubles pairing that debuted last week in a loss to Hun. "We just switched partners. When we went down, 5-2, we picked ourselves up."
   Bhatt and Paine earned their second win together as the PHS doubles teams defeated WW-PS’ squads, while the three Pirate singles players all won. Even with the team’s loss, Bhatt and Paine couldn’t come down from their peak on Monday.
   The two conferred after games against the Knights, talking to each other, motivating one another through the bad points and pushing through the good ones.
   "We’re not going to lose, 6-2, in the third set," a determined Paine told Bhatt during the match. No truer words were spoken, and no more dramatic a turnaround came than from their far court.
   "This is certainly the closest match I’ve seen or heard of," Black said. "Claire Mulvey, I told her in the middle of the match that if we lost, we didn’t make the state tournament. She’s a senior and she seemed to elevate her game. She played through a turned ankle to get a win.
   "Laura and Garima, being down 5-2 in the third set and coming back, that’s a remarkable job. When they were losing, they were more concerned with trying to get the ball back. I encouraged them to try to take their shots. That’s what they did to come back."
   Princeton takes its momentum into today’s 4 p.m. match at Princeton Day School before opening the Mercer County Tournament on Monday. There, the Little Tigers will try to prove they still have some bite. It’s something that the Knights found out Monday.
   "It was a great match," said WW-P North head coach Albert Paulsson, whose squad faces Allentown today. "It could have gone either way. Princeton is always a tough team. It’s a tough one to lose, but it went the distance. You always know you can never take Princeton lightly. They’re a solid team."
   Still, the Little Tigers’ win over North surprised even their own coach.
   "I didn’t expect us to win, but I knew we’d be able to make it competitive on some of the courts," said Black, who is in his second season as PHS head coach. "I knew that the playing field would be much more level this year. I’m expecting a lot more competitive matches."
   And, after Monday’s and Tuesday’s showings against some of the top CVC teams, he will be expecting a resilient Princeton squad to show its toughness at every match. It’s something the players seem up for as well.
   "We have some stuff to work on," Paine said. "We’ve had a problem babying the ball, not being aggressive with our volleys. We knew this was a hard team, we knew they beat West Windsor South. It’s a great feeling to win."
   But it’s not over yet. The two squads could see each other at the MCT next week and then there’s a rematch, scheduled for Oct. 18 at WW-P North. PHS will be looking to prove it’s still the team to beat in the Valley Division, and the Knights will certainly be up for it.
   "It could have gone either way," Paulsson said. "We were definitely psyched for it. It’s nice that we get to play them again."