Bianchini moves up for PHS tennis

Sophomore slides into first doubles slot

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   There are five good reasons to expect that the Princeton High School girls’ tennis team could do even better this year than last year’s Central Jersey Group III finalists did in going 17-2.
   The Little Tigers return five players from last season’s top seven, including players from their top four flights.
   The one returning player who has slid up one flight is Allegra Bianchini, who teamed with the graduated Liz Haughton to go 11-1 at second doubles before the CJ III final a year ago. This year, she is expected to play with Kasey Reisman, whose partner from a year ago, Liana Dorman, also graduated. The 2007 pairing got off to a flying start with a 6-0, 6-0 win in the Little Tigers’ 5-0 romp over Lawrence at the new PHS courts Wednesday.
   ”At the end of last year, me and Kasey were talking about how it would be great if we played first doubles together,” said Bianchini, who is a sophomore. “We weren’t expecting that to happen, but we were thinking of it as a possibility. We’re excited it did happen.
   ”This feels really good. It feels really solid. We work really well together, and we have fun together and that’s important.”
   There was plenty of fun to go around for the Little Tigers, who swept the singles with the familiar lineup of Priya Joshi, Alex Willig and Jenn Yi, and also welcomed the new second doubles combination of Pooja Joshi and Jesse Delaney as they helped sweep the doubles as well. The Little Tigers were able to move back to their home courts after playing home matches at Community Park for the last three years.
   ”It’s nice to have the home opener of the season on the brand new courts,” said PHS head coach Sarah Heyman. “It’s always nice to start the season with a win, get the nerves out the way for some of the new players, and get in gear and start the season.”
   While the start of the season came before the start of classes at PHS, it didn’t take long for the new first doubles pairing to build camaraderie despite having never played with each other before, or even against each other, before this season.
   ”We have basically the exact same game,” Bianchini said. “It’s really easy because, besides the fact I’m left-handed and she’s right-handed, we have the exact same strokes. It’s good because we basically know each other’s games already.
   ”Liz and I didn’t actually start playing together until a little way into the season last year,” she added. “But once we started playing together, we got together really well. Kasey and I just clicked this year. We played our first match today and we were fine. We worked well together and communication was fine, so it was good.”
   Bianchini approached this season with a little more confidence after going through an entire varsity season last year, one that closed with a split of sets against Mercer County Tournament champion Stuart Country Day to avenge the lone loss of their regular season. She competed for the track team in the spring to help with her conditioning, and continued to play year-round to improve her play and contributions to the Little Tigers.
   ”Last summer,” Bianchini said, “I was so nervous about trying out freshman year. This year, I kind of just let it come. It wasn’t really anything big for me. I was more excited than nervous this year.”
   Experience is a big factor in helping her slide up to the more competitive first doubles slot. She finds last year’s varsity play helpful for this year’s transition up.
   ”Just because I’m used to how it feels, the pressure and everything,” she said. “On our team, doubles is a big pressure place because we kind of count on our doubles teams to win. Being used to that, I think it’s an advantage.”
   With the entire singles lineup back, the Little Tigers know what to expect in their first three flights. Wednesday gave the first look at how the other two flights will be in determining PHS’ strength.
   ”The question always comes with doubles, just because with singles players, you know what they do,” Heyman said. “There’s one person on the court and, they can have a good day or a bad day, but you usually know how they can play. There’s not as much in terms of variables.
   ”With two people on the court, especially if they haven’t played together before, you never know how things will click. You set up matches, you try them, and try to match personalities and game styles. It’s always interesting to see how that really works when it comes to competition with other teams. Competing against your own team is never quite the same as going against another team when it really counts.”
   Bianchini looked to be in midseason form Wednesday. The Little Tigers hope it’s proof that they have the depth again to advance deep into the state tournament and contend for a county crown. They are hoping that the first doubles tandem will become a reliable point.
   ”I think they bring a lot to the first doubles position,” Heyman said. “They both have varsity experience from last year — Kasey at first, Allegra at second. They’ve both been in the varsity doubles lineup. They both have a lot of power and are aggressive and willing to step up and play aggressively at the net. And, they do have fairly similar games. So I think they will be able to communicate well and understand what the other person is going to do because it’s likely what they would do.
   ”It can sometimes be difficult if they’re too similar, but I think they’ll help balance each other out. I think they should have a good season together hopefully. Kasey did well at first and Allegra did well at second. Hopefully they’ll be able to use their experiences from last year to build a solid foundation for this season.”
   Bianchini is off to a good start. Her off-season preparation has helped her make a smooth move up to first doubles.
   ”Allegra has become a lot more aggressive but also a lot more consistent,” Heyman said. “She’s picked up the power in her game, and she’s raised her consistency which is really important. She’s continued to work on her game and all aspects of it. She did track last spring which helped. I think she really worked hard. She was excited to make the varsity lineup last year and I knew she wanted to make it this year and move up so she put a lot into this summer. You can see the improvement.”
   Bianchini would love to duplicate last year’s success in her new position. Being a part of a traditionally strong doubles lineup gives her a hand in the Little Tigers’ success as well. This year, she’ll do so at first, rather than second, doubles.
   ”The last couple years, a lot of our strength has come from the bottom,” Heyman said. “A lot of teams have one or two good players. Being able to fill out a strong lineup from first singles to second doubles is really the key to winning the close matches. If you win the two doubles, then you only have to pick up one in singles and that takes some pressure off the singles. And hopefully we can pick up all three singles. It’s great when they all can share in a win.”
   They did Wednesday to open the season on a good note. The singles returned to the court with convincing wins, the new second doubles pairing debuted with a win and Allegra Bianchini and Kasey Reisman showed they’ll be a challenge for anyone at first doubles.
   ”We have a really solid team this year,” Bianchini said. “We’re really excited about it.”