BUSY DAY: Princeton Day School girls’ tennis player Shuchi Vanga blasts a forehand in a match earlier this season. Last Thursday, junior Vanga had a busy day as she competed in the second singles semis of the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) tournament and the final in the event at the Prep B state tournament. Vanga lost in the CVC semis but then rallied to defeat Gill St. Bernard’s Lila Rao 1-6, 7-5, (10-8) to win the Prep B second singles title. (Photo by Frank Jacobs III)
By Bill Alden
For Shuchi Vanga, last Thursday proved to be a marathon day of tennis that ended with a title.
Princeton Day School girls’ tennis junior star Vanga was on a championship path in two tournaments simultaneously, making the second singles semis of the Colonial Valley Conference (CVC) tournament and the final in the event at the Prep B state tournament.
With both tourneys concluding on the same day, Vanga was battling on two fronts.
\She started the day by hitting the court at the Mercer County Park Tennis Complex at 8:30 a.m. to play in the CVC semi.
Facing WW/P-South’s Vanessa Kudelya, Vanga got off to a good start but ended up losing 6-2, 6-0.
“Early in the match, the girl was struggling with her command and Shuchi was getting under she skin a little bit,” said Panther head coach Michael Augsberger. “It was 2-1 Shuchi but from there South got a handle on the match a little bit more. Shuchi struggled with her serve, she made a number of double faults. The South girl wasn’t overpowering but she got a handle on her consistency.”
After the loss, Vanga waited to see if she could play her third place match before heading to the Prep B final at Wardlaw-Hartridge. Vanga munched down a pasta lunch in the Hall of Fame lounge in the interim.
When the other semi was delayed after one of the players got stung by a bee, Vanga defaulted and hit the road around noon for the hour drive to Wardlaw.
Arriving there around 1:00, Vanga warmed up to prepare for the second half of her marathon.
Vanga got off to a shaky start in the Prep B final, losing thr first set to Gill St. Bernard’s Lila Rao but rallied to pull out a 1-6, 7-5, (10-8) win and earn the title.
“Shuchi started slow and she ended strong,” said Augsberger. “It didn’t feel like she was losing energy. She was gaining energy through the match.”
In fighting back, Vanga employed a more aggressive approach.
“She got a handle on her double faults,” said Augsberger. “She realized that whenever she was able to bring her opponent to the net, Shuchi would win the point. She could pass her if she was able to bring her up. We knew that was going to be part of the strategy and toward the end she was able to do that more often.”
Vanga got it done when the match was hanging in the balance late in the second half.
“I would just say that the grit that Shuchi showed was really impressive,” said Augsberger, noting that Vanga was starving after the final and hit Chipotle on the way home. “There was a turning point in that match in the final. It was 4-5 and Shuchi was serving to stay in. She faced two match points. There was replaying of a point at the urging of the referee and if she has lost that, she would have lost the match. I knew if she was able to come through this and make it 5-all, she would have the momentum to go on and at least win the set and the tiebreak would be up for grabs. She won it on a winner.”
In finishing third in the team standings at the Prep B event won by Montclair Kimberley Academy, PDS got a gritty performance from Sasha Goldberg at third singles as she nearly made the final in her flight, losing a tight match to Rutgers Prep’s Sophia Lai in the semis.
“Sasha had a great performance at third singles, they had played in the Non-Public quarterfinals and had a tiebreak that went down to the wire then,” said Augsberger. “They did the same this time again, the match was basically the same. Sasha got off to a hot start and then Rutgers clawed back and then they had a 10-point tiebreak. Sasha just flagged a little bit in terms of energy.”
The Panthers tied for fifth overall in the CVC tournament that was won by WW/P-North as the first doubles pair of Zarna Kalra and Devaki Nanavati and the second doubles team of Andrea Lenart and Ahana Subbaraman both advanced to the quarterfinal round.
“Getting so many positions into the second round and getting those extra points was the highlight,” sad Augsberger, noting that first singles player Arundhati Prabhu nearly advanced to the quarters as well. “Doubles was strong. We were testing out how things could work next year with the second doubles lineup with Andrea. Ahana has been there all year, she has been a strong player. The second doubles needed mixing up. Zarna and Devaki were pretty clearly the first doubles team all year. They had their biggest win of the year against Robbinsville to get us the match there that gave us fourth place in the conference overall in the CVC.”
With no seniors on the squad this year, Augsberger believes the Panthers are in a good place going forward.
“Everybody is coming back next year, it will be a year wiser, a year older team,” said Augsberger, whose team ended with an 11-7 record in dual match play. “We are going to have Prisha [Tiwari] back who was away this year. We will have new additions and we will have all of these returning experienced players. That is really what it was all about. It was about setting up next year and trying to get as many wins as we could this season. There are some years where we have a stronger team but we don’t win any titles. This year we have a title with Shuchi. There are some years where we only win matches that we expect to win and we don’t make any surprises. This year we pulled out some big wins. That were dramatic endings like against Pennington and Robbinsville.”