By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
Surrounded by change, Shannon Lu is the one staple in the Montgomery High School girls tennis lineup.
The senior returns at second singles where she hopes to defend her Somerset County Tournament title and help the Cougars retain the team title when the SCT begins today. The finals are slated for Sunday at Green Knoll with Lu the top seed.
“I guess it’s a little pressure,” she said. “I want to do well because I know I can perform well. It’s a nice feeling to know that you’re able to do it. It’s just a matter of actually doing it.
“I’m excited. I’m looking forward to the tournament. I know there’s a lot of schools in our county that we haven’t played. The girl from Gill, I lost to her my sophomore year so I know she’s good. I do want to play well.”
Lu and the Cougars have gotten off to a strong start in the midst of adjusting to their new roles. MHS fell 3-2, to Watchung Hills on Wednesday in a bit of an upset, but the Cougars were missing one of their second doubles players, Annie Yang. That forced another change for a lineup that only has Lu in the same spot from a year ago.
“We had a tough loss today,” said MHS head coach Raheel Saleem. “Annie is injured but hopefully she’ll be good to go for the county tournament. Watchung is a pretty solid team. We didn’t play at full strength, but I think they are learning from the matches. They had challenges from Millburn and Summit. Their fighting has shown they can come back and even if they’re down, can take momentum back.”
The Cougars have faced several early tests. They lost to Millburn but stopped Summit at the Millburn Invitational. They edged Ridge in the regular season.
“The Millburn Invitational, although we lost, getting the chance to play them, they’ve been ranked in the top five for the past couple years, so we all learned from it,” Lu said. “When I was playing my match, hitting with her and playing pretty decent points, it gave me confidence. We beat Summit after we played them, so that gave us confidence to play with the best teams in the state.”
Lu expects to see the Cougars continue to gain confidence as they move forward and pick up more match experience in their new spots.
“We knew that we had the seniors leaving so lots of spots were available,” Lu said. “Our tennis program at Montgomery, there’s a lot of really talented players. The players who stepped into the varsity spots, they’re if not the same level, they’re close. We try every match just as hard to compete and play our game.”
Lily Chu has vaulted all the way from third singles to first singles, Emily Roeper has moved from her state championship pairing at first doubles to play third singles, twins Ally and Amy Yan are into the first doubles slot and Yang and Isabelle Kreydin are new to second doubles. Kreydin played with Katherine Qi against Watchung Hills.
“I’m extremely proud of all my girls,” Saleem said. “Lily being able to make that kind of jump and holding her own, she’s been playing great tennis and it’s something motivating her. She plays her best tennis against the best competition. I think she’s going to do really well.
“Shannon has been my rock. She’s been undefeated in the conference and been playing awesome. Emily, it has been a bit of transition going from doubles to singles. It’s something she’s embraced and enjoying.”
Saleem is new to the team as well. It’s his first year coaching the Cougars after coaching three years at Robbinsville High School.
“The girls have been very open with a lot of the changes on them,” he said. “They’ve embraced me and it’s taken some time for them to get to know me. They’ve been very easy going with me and they’ve embraced me. Plus the old coaches did such a nice job.”
Lu came into the year looking to be even better than she was a year ago. She has been working at the little things in her game and focused on some critical points.
“Probably just consistency and still attacking my shots,” Lu said. “Also playing smarter, so not going for every single shot, but choosing which ones I want to attack. I think last year, I would say my season went pretty well and that gave me a lot of confidence. Even though I’m at second singles this year — it was sort of a setback when I lost to Lily twice — it was OK because I realized I want to do my best at second singles and help the team. Being more consistent and taking the shots I want to be aggressive on are the two biggest things I want to work on.”
Lu and fellow senior Roeper and Chu, who is a junior, are the captains for the Cougars. They will be inspiring the newcomers to the varsity lineup as the head into the SCT.
“They’re the girls I go to for everything,” Saleem said. “They’ve been extremely helpful in motivating the other girls. I think it’s helped the doubles teams. Having two sophomores at first doubles, they’re such extremely smart players and once they get experience, they’ll be a formidable foe for any team that comes upon them in the next few years. My first doubles team did a great job of learning from other teams. You can see them growing and learning from the competition. They’re very smart girls.
“Second doubles, Annie and Isabelle, they’ve done a great job at the JV level and embraced the varsity level. They’ve played some tough teams. They’ve adapted well and they listen well and adjust when they need to.”
MHS will be leaning on its more experienced singles players in the early part of the season. They have been to the SCT before and they know what to expect.
“We know how compete with other players who are pretty good,” Lu said. “That gives us a lot of confidence in our game, especially because we know we can hit with these high level players. In the tournament when we play people we don’t meet in regular conference games, if we take it one ball at a time, we’ll be able to do well.
“Looking to the future, as our season is going along, especially for the newer players, they’re gaining experience as they go. The more experience, the better, then you know how to handle yourself under pressure. In those situations, you have the experience and know how to handle them.”
Lu has helped to try to foster a supportive atmosphere. She has seen that pay off in the first few weeks of the season against a challenging schedule.
“This team now is probably the closest our team has ever been,” Lu said. “It’s only been a few weeks, but we’re truly like a family. We feel that more in the past years. When we lost, today was an enlightening experience. Although we lost, we have each other’s back. On the bus ride back, we were supportive of each other. Obviously we want to do our best and win and go as far as we can, but this season especially we’ve all learned to bond as a team and represent our school in the best way we can.”
The Cougars are intent to do that as the head into the SCT and as they pick up the remainder of their regular-season schedule and look to states.
“I think we almost have the same goals as last year,” Lu said. “The section finals, in my high school career, we’ve never won as a team. Last year, we lost in the semifinals to Hunterdon Central, which was kind of a tough loss. I think this year, we want to improve on that.
“As the season goes on, we’ll know how to improve. The experience will help us. Everyone is adjusting well, but we still have room to improve. I think we can only go up from here.”
