Girls Varsity Tennis vs Stevenson School

The match was played using Northern California’s scoring format, with four singles players and three doubles teams all competing in best-of-three-sets matches. The unfamiliar format added a 10th player to matches usually played with 9, which allowed the Rams to display their strength in depth.

The sole loss for Cate on the day came at #1 singles, where Grace Fuss ’20 faced some very tough competition. “In fact, it was a victory of sorts, with the tough competition bringing out the very best in Fuss, who battled back from an 0-6 first set to take the second set 6-4 and force a 10-point tie-breaker for the deciding set,” said Cate head coach Trevor Thorpe.

“That breaker could have gone either way; they were tied at six all, seven all, and eight all. Grace didn’t even play poorly in the last two points, but credit to their player for raising her level at the key moment. Regardless, I couldn’t be more proud of Grace and it’s clear that she is really hitting her stride at this point in the season,” added Thorpe.

The rest of the matches were straight-set wins for Cate, with Fritze Mayer ’21, Carol Cai ’20, and Yuki Kobayashi ’21 dropping just six games across six sets-of-play at singles #2-4.

The doubles lineup equalled that feat with just six games dropped in their six sets. Sarah Polowczak ’19 and Aminah Hill ’22 took a 6-0, 6-1 victory at the #1 position; Sydney Burton ’19 and Jennifer Soh ’19 won 6-1, 6-0 at #2; and Mia Foster ’20 and Madeline Vanica ’21 won 6-1, 6-3 in the final doubles position. In exhibition play, Kate Tunnell ’19 and Ashi Kamra ’22 partnered to defeat their Stevenson opponents 6-1, 6-1.

Cate returns to the courts to face the Webb School Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm, hoping to complete a sweep of four matches played in five days.