Casey, new-look MHS back to championship vs. South
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Rachel Casey could have looked at all the players that the Montgomery High School girls tennis team lost from last year and figured a sectional final berth was out of the question.
But that’s not in the nature of the MHS senior.
”I have a lot of motivation this year, and I think our team can go as far as they want to go,” Casey said. “Everyone has proven to be a fighter.”
The Cougars have taken their lead from Casey, who has jumped from third singles to first singles to replace Rachel Pierson, who elected not to play in her senior year. Casey picked up one of her most convincing wins of the season and the third-seeded Cougars swept the doubles to knock off second-seeded West Windsor-Plainsboro North in the Central Jersey Group IV semifinals Thursday. They were scheduled to play West Windsor-Plainsboro South for the championship Monday after Packet deadline.
”We were really open-minded about what was going to happen,” Casey said. “We wanted to go in and do whatever was possible within our own capabilities to pull out a win. We went in with determination and fight. We knew they were a tough opponent. We were prepared for what was coming our way.”
In the first-ever meeting of the two teams, Casey was a 6-0, 6-2 winner over Danika Baskar, a player she’d only seen while coming up through the tennis ranks.
”When we were younger and playing junior tournaments, I always followed her,” Casey said. “She was No. 1 in all the tournaments I was playing. I looked up to her. She’s an amazing player. She has so much experience and an amazing forehand. I was worried about it. I amazed myself today.”
The Knights picked up a win from Mercer County Tournament second singles champion Harinee Suthakar over Amanda Tilles, who has jumped from second doubles all the way to second singles for MHS. The Cougars, though, ended the match with wins from the Somerset County Champions at first doubles, Kinjal Shah and Jessica Yang, 6-3, 6-3, and from SCT runner-up at second doubles, Stephanie Allen and Tiffany Zhu, 7-5, 6-2. Jessica Mao picked up the Kniights’ second point with a three-set win over MHS’ Emily Szkudlarski.
”The doubles teams pulled through,” Casey said. “They’ve been awesome this year. First doubles, it’s their second year together. They’re strong communicators. It was a big win for them today. And second doubles came through too.
”As long as our doubles teams stay strong and singles spots keep fighting, it’s not much of a surprise that we’re here,” she added. “They’ve been doing that.”
MHS improved to 9-2 this season while advancing to Monday’s scheduled sectional final against a familiar foe, WW-P South. The eighth-seeded Pirates stopped No. 4 East Brunswick, 3-2, with the exact same formula for wins as the Cougars did. Belinda Ji won at first singles and their doubles teams swept the Bears. Ivy Kang and Rebekka Hansen picked up their biggest win of the year, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, to clinch the win after Angela I and Sanjana Ravi won at second doubles, 6-1, 6-4.
Monday was the fourth time in the last five years that MHS and WW-P South have played in the final. The Cougars won the head-to-head in 2007 and last year. South won in 2009, and they Pirates also won the final in 2008 over East Brunswick. South, too, wasn’t expected to make it back after some significant losses, and their first singles of a year ago, Ammu Mandalap, electing not to play this year.
”You can never count a team out even though they graduated a majority of their varsity starters,” said MHS head coach Cristina Venetucci. “It shows these girls, even though people have been thinking it’s a big hit losing Rachel Pierson, we’ve been making the best of what we have. We can win with a good overall team. We don’t have superstars at first, second and third singles, but we’ve got a great 1 through 7 lineup. That’s a strong thing for a team to have.”
Someone had to move up for the Cougars to take the place of Pierson and Casey had that tough task. She joked after Thursday’s win that she’d finally climbed back to a .500 record.
”It’s definitely very different,” Casey said. “It takes a toll on one’s confidence. Last year, I almost had a perfect record. I was clinching matches. I was the one that could go three sets and pull out the win for the team.
”At some point, everyone is going to be depended on to pull through for the team. It’s definitely a spot where you say I’m going to do the best I can.”
Casey is a shining example of how to handle such a big jump. She hasn’t backed down from anyone, though two of her regular divisional opponents are two of the four top-ranked singles players in the state.
”It’s a tough thing to go from third singles to first singles and be playing the level of competition she’s playing,” Venetucci said. “It can be discouraging, especially senior year, but she has an awesome personality. Any time she’s lost, she’ll bounce back the next match. She always fights and has that competitive edge no matter who she plays. Other girls might pack it in for the rest of the season. She keeps going. I commend her for that.
”It’s definitely something that the other girls see,” she added, “and they take pride in the fact that they have a senior co-captain, even though she’s struggling, she’s 100 percent behind her teammates. When she’s the first one off, she’s there to watch her teammates and root them on, whether she lost or won.”
Casey was the first one off the court Thursday. It wasn’t her biggest win in a state match. That honor goes to last year’s three-set win in the sectional final to upend WW-P South.
”It was the most epic win for me,” Casey said. “After that whole fight, I saw it as I can do it any time, and if I can do it, our team can do it.”
The Cougars have pulled together throughout the season, and did so again to knock off WW-P North and return to a sectional final with a lineup that has new players at every position.
”I think it says we’re fighters,” Casey said. “We really had no idea how this season was going to go, if we were even going to qualify for states. I try to have faith in everybody, and they proved me right in that we are a really strong team.
”As a captain, I was trying to focus on everyone trying to see the team as a family and as a second home. I think that’s how we’re playing. We’ve worked well together. We’re all sticking together and playing for each other.”