By Sean Richards, Sports Writer
With its season rapidly reaching a conclusion, the Monroe Township High School girls tennis team continued to play over the last week much like it has all year.
Namely, it was more tennis of a decent, but hardly inspiring variety.
”It has not been a great year for us,” said veteran Monroe coach Trudy Marmorek. “We were hoping for more, but our doubles teams didn’t pan out. It’s been a mediocre season.”
In some of its more recent action, Monroe beat Perth Amboy, 5-0, and South Plainfield, 4-1, but then fell to Sayreville, 3-2, Monday. It was the second time this year the Falcons came up just one win short against the Blue Bombers. But they rebounded with a 5-0 win over Bishop Ahr to push their record to 10-8 entering Wednesday’s scheduled matches with Mother Seton.
Against Seton, Monroe had a regularly scheduled match and was also to have completed a match that was halted earlier in the year by darkness.
The victory over Bishop Ahr sealed a .500 record for the Falcons.
Still, Monroe was hoping for more after being well over the .500 mark a year ago. Injuries, bad luck and some tough losses prevented a repeat from happening.
The good news of late was the fact No. 1 singles player Marissa Jendras and No. 2 Jackie Niu again won all their matches over the above mentioned span. Niu, who is ranked sixth in the senior class academically, has the best record on the team with only four losses.
Jendras was also about to cap off a glorious year that saw her run into some exceptional No. 1 players around Middlesex County this season. Jendras wasn’t helped any this year by various ailments and injuries, but she was able to persevere and help her team remain competitive in most matches.
Another plus is the fact Jackie Jesus is back in the lineup from injury and teamed with Alyssa Cosentino to win at first doubles against the Trojans.
”Jackie’s a senior and wants to finish up her career on the court,” said Marmorek. “She wants to be in there at the end.”
Ashley Palach won at third singles against Bishop Ahr, while the second doubles team of Manisha Sashital & Theresa Lin also won.
