Rosca achieves goal with state tennis crown
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Christina Rosca made it a goal to win a state singles championship.
As a freshman at Princeton High School last year, she made it all the way to the semifinals before bowing out of the state singles tournament. While she knew that she had improved since last year, she couldn’t be sure who her competition was this year and if she could come out on top.
”It’s definitely not easy,” said Rosca, now a sophomore at first singles for the PHS girls team.
None of Rosca’s final three state singles matches this year were easy in the least. All of them went three sets. She lost a set to Freehold Boro’s Michaela Hlavata in the quarterfinals, then the next day the fourth-seeded Rosca lost the first set to top-seed Joanna Zalewski of Linden before rallying to win the next two sets for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory.
The win put her into the final against second-seeded Valerie Shklover of Fair Lawn. In their championship match last Wednesday, Shklover took the first set, but Rosca rallied to take the next two sets for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win that captured the state singles title.
”It’s satisfying from the point of view I accomplished one of the things I wanted to do,” Rosca said. “I wasn’t sure when I’d be able to do it. The fact it happened this year — a lot earlier than I expected — is something I’m very excited about. I hope to be able to keep up my level of play.”
Almost lost in the midst of the excitement over Rosca becoming the first player from PHS to win a state singles title was how well the Little Tigers were doing as a team. Rosca remained unbeaten as she juggled her team duties with the individual tournament demands and her schoolwork.
Rosca kept on winning as she helped the Little Tigers repeat as Central Jersey Group III champions. Then less than 24 hours after she had won the individuals state title, she was back on the court to try to help PHS earn another title. They beat Chatham, 3½-1½ in the Group III state semifinal with Roca picking up a point in the win. Rosca was the lone PHS flight to win as they lost to Montville, 4-1, in the Group III state final, their second straight appearance in the state final.
”It’s definitely an honor,” Rosca said. “Not many of the girls who were seeded in states had really good teams to be on. It’s an honor to have a team with so much depth to be able to do so well in states. Unfortunately we lost again, but it was another close one that could have gone either way. Hopefully we can do better next year, but it was an enjoyable experience to play tennis for two straight days with my team there with me and playing alongside me. I’m sad it’s over. It was a really fun experience. Hopefully we’ll be successful next year.”
Christina Rosca is the Princeton Packet Athlete of the Week.
”I don’t think I comprehend the meaning of the history of it yet,” Rosca said. “I think it’s fun and exciting I was able to accomplish that. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet.”
The win may have come sooner than she would have expected in high school, but to those that have seen her play every day, they know how many assets she has as a player.
”She finishes matches so well,” said PHS head coach Sarah Hibbert. “She really stays tough. That is one of the things that I’ve been working on and her other coaches have as well, staying positive. She’s a perfectionist. She always wants to play her best. It’s making sure that desire to play her best doesn’t derail her.
”She did a great job of being able to stay focused, not look at the scoreboard, not worry about dropping the first set and come out strong in the second set of both matches and gut out a third set.”
Rosca has seen her game improve over the last year. The state singles was a chance for her to test how far she had come. When she saw the draw sheet, she didn’t have to look beyond Zalewski for someone she knew would be a significant challenge.
”I played Johanna a year ago in a match around Halloween,” Rosca said. “It was 6-2, 6-3. It wasn’t extremely close. It showed that I made a lot of progress to be able to do that.”
Improving her mental strength since last year has been a key to her success. She could have let the draw worry her.
”I knew it would work out well if I played my game and focused on every point and playing my style and wasn’t adapting to my opponent,” Rosca said. “If I was imposing my game style on them and not adapting, that’s one of the things that I focused on. Even when things weren’t working out that well, I stuck with it.”
In each of her last two matches, things weren’t working quite well enough in the first sets that she dropped, but she wasn’t discouraged.
”Something I’ve improved on is always thinking you can come back,” she said. “I think I was down the first set in all the matches to people I was seeded higher than me. Every match is a different match and anyone can win. In those two matches, in the semifinals and finals, I stuck with it. In both of the matches, I felt I was right there. It was just a matter of a couple points. If I could turn the points around, I was hoping I could have a better outcome. If I were to lose, I wanted to make my opponent work for it. That’s the objective of every match — play your match to the last point.”
In the end, it was Rosca that earned the wins. She has been a consistent force for the Little Tigers all season, and helped them to another incredible year.
”She won three matches for us in 24 hours, all of them against incredibly high level competition,” Hibbert said. “It was the semifinal and final and she had two dominant victories on Thursday for us in the team round, which was great for her to come back from such a great day with so much exertion and start off right again 9 a.m. the next day.”
Hibbert had confidence that Rosca had the ability to rally even after falling a set down in the semifinals and finals to higher seeded players.
”Just the fact she doesn’t give up, she wasn’t getting blown off the court,” Hibbert said. “It wasn’t that she was being outplayed terribly, couldn’t get the racket on the ball, or wasn’t competitive. They were just winning the big points. You could see if she made a slight tweak here or there, or got in a few more first serves, she could win. I think she felt the same way — I win this match if I play a little better.”
Rosca is no stranger to big wins. She has played plenty of big tournaments outside of school and won this year’s Mercer County Tournament. To her resume, she can now add a state singles title.
”It’s definitely a big accomplishment because the people I managed to beat in this tournament are exceptional players,” Rosca said. “It’s definitely among my highest. It’s one of the best results. I wouldn’t say it’s the best, but it’s among the top.
”I knew most of the girls that are really good in New Jersey,” she added. “I knew beating them wasn’t going to be an easy thing to do. I don’t think I thought it would come this early, but it’s something I’m proud of myself to be able to do, not just for the win, but that I played with these girls that are very accomplished and I was able to win.”
Rosca isn’t allowing herself to get too overwhelmed by the win. Win or lose, her focus remains on improving her game, putting herself in position to be able to win against any opponent. It paid off with her first state singles title, and with two more years to go, the possibilities are impressive.
”I would say that I did celebrate it in my own way,” Rosca said. “I was happy with my achievement. I went right back to working on my game. I feel like the best thing after playing a good match is to keep playing. It makes you feel good about your game and that you’re progressing. I try not to make a big deal out of achievements because that would make you too full of yourself. You need to focus on moving forward and that’ll help you.
”If I celebrate too much and forget about the goal of improving, that doesn’t help. I was very happy I was able to pull it off. I had to get right back to work so I can do more good things next year.”