Rosca repeats as singles champ
By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Christina Rosca and the Princeton High School girls tennis team hesitated to celebrate when told that they had won the Mercer County Tournament.
A 30-year drought punctuated by several narrow misses will do that.
There were still matches to be finished, and even with plenty of honors math students on the team, the math was still a bit fuzzy, but after Rosca won her second straight title at first singles, there was no one catching the Little Tigers on Wednesday at Mercer County Park.
”It’s definitely an amazing experience,” said Rosca, the junior who has played in the last three MCT first-singles finals. “It’s something amazing to accomplish, especially with three seniors on our team. It’s quite an accomplishment for all of us.”
PHS clinched at least a share of its first county championship since 1984 — before the MCT went to a flight format – when it advanced four players to the finals in flights plus Katelyn Hojeibane to the consolation final at third singles.
”Obviously, we knew we had a good shot after advancing five to the semis and four to the finals,” said PHS head coach Sarah Hibbert. “We knew that was a great chance for us, but there’s a lot of great competition for us this year — North and South and PDS are all really strong teams. They were all right on our heels and if we let down intensity for a second, it’s very easy to slip and lose focus and lose points.”
The best that defending champion West Windsor-Plainsboro South or perennial contender West Windsor-Plainsboro North could do was tie if either team won both of its finals and both of its consolation matches. The Pirates would go on to earn 24 points for the tournament with wins at first and second doubles and third-place wins at second and third singles to keep the pressure on, but Rosca won at first singles over Hopewell Valley’s Brianna Shvets, 6-2, 6-1, to seal the outright victory, and Rory Lewis closed her county career with a win at third singles, 6-3, 6-2, over WW-P North’s Amanda Binder for the Little Tigers’ 26th point.
”This is a great way to go out,” said Lewis, a PHS senior. “I think every year we’ve gotten closer to the team county title. To get it this year is really great.”
Zhenia Dementyeva and Nikhita Salgame picked up key points on their way to the first doubles final, and Elise Gerdes and Gillian Samios did the same at second doubles to contribute to the PHS win. Dementyeva, Hojeibane and Lewis are seniors.
”It’s been a long time,” said Hibbert, who is in her 11th season at Little Tigers head coach and was an assistant for a season before it. “I was really pleased with the way the girls were able to come together, especially with the three seniors who have been an important part of the team for three or four years. It’s a really nice way for them to go out.
”Every year, we’ve been super close and had an injury or lineup change the day before the county tournament, which has just thrown us a little bit. This year, everyone managed to be healthy. We did have someone out with mono last week. But we were hoping we were able to make this our year.”
PHS got off to a quick start by advancing all of its flights from the first day of action at MCP. WW-P North, WW-P South and Princeton Day School, which had three flights alive after the first day, still loomed.
”Everyone was nervous going into (Wednesday) because we had the most people going into semifinals out of any school,” Rosca said. “We definitely knew we had a good shot, but if we didn’t play our best that it wouldn’t happen. Everyone knew they had to play well today.”
The semifinals gave the Little Tigers a big edge, and their two flight titles finished off the team victory.
”We won two this year,” Hibbert said. “South won both doubles and PDS won one. In years past, we’ve had five different teams win. It comes down to which players and doubles teams can step up on the final Wednesday.”
For Rosca, it was her second title in three chances. She hasn’t played many regular-season matches this year, but one of them had come against Shvets, the freshman from Hopewell. They didn’t finish the regular-season match due to weather, but Shvets had held her own.
”I wasn’t very familiar with her,” Rosca said. “I’m not sure how much the match from before helped me. It definitely showed me that she’s an exceptional player and I need to be at the top of my game to win at her. It was a close match that got rained out unfortunately. I don’t think it helped me, like scouting her out.”
Rosca was on top of her game Wednesday. She came up with big shots when she had to in order to distance herself from Shvets for another individual crown.
”It definitely doesn’t get old,” Rosca said. “Each time, it’s definitely something that’s quite an important accomplishment. Not that many people can say they won the Mercer County Tournament so it means a lot. Each time, it’s harder than the previous time because you play new people who you haven’t played before. It’s definitely quite an experience.
”I know if I play the right way, if I play my game, my opponent is going to have to play really good to beat me,” she added. “If they do, that’s great for them. I give all the credit to them. I thought I played really well today. I wasn’t quite moving my feet well enough from the baseline. At the beginning of the match, I gave away a few too many points like that. It was still great overall.”
Rosca had to navigate through another difficult first-singles field to earn her win. Shvets is a new competitor, and the competition continues to challenge Rosca, even if the scores don’t always show it.
”I think it was definitely really strong this year,” Rosca said. “It’s difficult every year. Every player has parts of her game that are really good. It’s hard to play someone for the first time because you don’t really know what their strength is, what their weakness is, how do I play against them? There are all these questions that the first time you play somebody, they’re hard to answer right away and they take some time. So it’s always difficult.”
It made it even better for Rosca when she realized that she wasn’t celebrating this year’s title alone. There was also a team title to enjoy, and it made this year’s trip to the MCP her most memorable yet.
”It’s quite an amazing experience,” Rosca said. “It’s enjoyable to get to watch my teammates play. It’s sort of different from a team match where we get to skip school and get to watch each other play, which doesn’t usually happen unless you finish before your teammates at a regular match. You get to cheer them on more.
”It’s a lot more of a team friendly environment than a regular match. During regular matches, you want to go home and do your schoolwork after the regular matches, not necessarily stay and cheer every point like it’s a life and death matter. Here, I think it’s more of that. We get to cheer for each other a lot. It’s a lot of fun.”
For seniors on the team like Lewis, there was real satisfaction after seeing the Little Tigers come through in the end. They had been on the verge of taking a title in each of the past two years before fluke events sidetracked them.
”I think this year we didn’t really have those freaky things,” Lewis said. “Gillian got a little sick, but she was able to make it. The fact that all of the players were here and healthy and playing in the spots they were supposed to be in was really helpful. Everybody is a great player. We’re really deep this year. That makes a difference —having great players.
”We thought, this is our year, let’s go get it. At the same time, you can’t let a goal take hold in your mind. You have to push it out of your mind and just play. I think we were confident going in.”
Lewis helped to cement the win with a big personal win over Binder in a matchup of two unbeatens at third singles. It was Lewis’s first championship in singles at the MCT.
”It means a lot,” she said. “As a sophomore, I won the Mercer County first doubles title. This is my first singles flight title. It feels great.
”I think I played well,” she said. “(Monday) I was a little shaky. I went out each match a little nervous, but I think I got through it OK. My finals match against North was definitely the hardest. She was really a competitive player, really aggressive and I had to play well and be mentally very focused about the whole thing. I hadn’t played her yet, so I didn’t know what to expect.”
It was a feeling that pervaded Princeton before the tournament. They felt good, but they had lost, 3-2, to WW-P South in the regular season.
”I don’t think we felt we were the favorites,” Lewis said. “I think we knew we could win it if we played our best.”Thirty years of being right in the mix but not quite pulling out the team title had shown how competitive the MCT is. PHS was happy to finally land back atop the podium.
”It’s obviously very tough,” Hibbert said. “North and South are very strong schools, with the private schools PDS and Hun and normally Peddie. They didn’t play this year, and I don’t know if that affected anything. There’s a lot of talent in this county. Even schools that may not be as strong all the way through have strong players here and there. There was some diversity in the matches with different schools mixing in there.
”It’s definitely a tough tournament to win. You have to be strong from first singles to second doubles. You have to have a little bit of luck that other teams knock each other out too to help you go through.”
With the MCT crown in hand for the first time since the 1980s, the Little Tigers head into the state tournament with some higher confidence. The county tournament is the perfect sort of environment to prepare for the pressures of states.
”When you play MCTs, you play a lot of really good players so you get good match experience,” Lewis said. “You see teams you haven’t seen before. We hadn’t seen North play yet, so now we know what to expect when we play them. It’s experience. The fact that we played so well here is a confidence booster.”
Rosca agreed: “I definitely think it does help. I think it’ll give us a lot of confidence definitely, but also some pressure. It’ll be interesting to see how that’s dealt with by other players on the team because pressure is harder to deal with than being the underdog. It’s a lot easier to be the underdog in a match than the person who’s supposed to win. It’ll be interesting, but I think it’s definitely something positive and it’ll give us some confidence going into states.”
Princeton High will welcome a little pressure if it’s the result of winning a county team title. It hasn’t happened often, and the Little Tigers were thrilled to finally put all the pieces together.
”We were very, very close, and it just didn’t go the way those years we were really hoping it would have,” Hibbert said. “This year, with all the seniors in the lineup and most of the returners from last year back, we were hoping this could be our year. We were pleased with the results.”