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Flip the Script: East defeats Allen to open district tennis season
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
Two and a half weeks ago, Allen tennis beat Plano East at the Plano West/Highland Park Invitational thanks in large part to a 5-2 lead it established in doubles.
The score was again 5-2 after doubles Tuesday afternoon.
Only this time it was the opposite team who held the advantage as the Panthers created a lead and didn't look back in a district-opening 14-5 victory over the Eagles.
Tuesday's win represented the first time East has beat Allen since Don Allen took over as Panthers head coach in 2008.
"Obviously that part is big and we are very happy to beat them," Allen said. "We still have to be cautious though; it's a nice little confidence booster, but we know Allen is right there with us."
That much was evident in the scores.
Though East secured its victory once reaching a commanding 10-2 advantage, the Panthers also held a 5-1 lead in three-set matches at that point.
"That's a game changer right there," Quest said.
Allen's lone three-set win came at the girls No. 2 doubles line.
The Eagles would also pick up a straight-set win from Josh McKinney and Andrew Miller (boys No. 2), but the Panthers fired back emphatically with victories via their pairings of Triston Liu and Eric Hong (boys No. 1), Vishal Menon and Varun Srinivasan (boys No. 3), Ashwini Kulkarni and Agata Jakubowska (girls No. 1), Sharon Heber and Alison Vo (girls No. 3) and Karan Bindra and Ryana Patel (mixed). That gave East a 5-2 lead at the turn.
"Both our girls and boys really stepped up today," Allen said. "It was the opposite as last time, but that really pushed Allen and they obviously kept fighting."
The three-set matches continued in singles.
So much so that even players who won in straight sets were cognizant of all the tiebreakers.
"I just didn't want to go to a tiebreaker," said Heber, who swept her No. 4 girls match with a 6-3 win in the second set after trailing 3-0.
Heber and Jakubowska (No. 2 girls) were the only players to win two matches in the race to 10 without going the distance.
"Doubles were a little tense, but it got better in singles," said Jakubowska, who didn't lose a game in her singles match. "I felt like I played well out there today and it absolutely feels great when you can contribute two points."
Even with those two wins, East still needed three more singles points to grab the victory.
And they would all come via tiebreaker.
The lengthiest of those was on the No. 1 boys line where Liu defeated Dillon Pineda (6-3, 4-6, 16-14). That was Liu's second tiebreaker of the day.
"I feel like I could play another right now," Liu said with a smile.
It didn't look good for Liu early in the breaker though as Pineda established a 6-1 lead.
"I knew it was going to be tough at that point," Liu said.
Liu eventually won, pushing East another point closer to the win and ending a lengthy day of tennis for him.
"Finally," Liu said when asked what he was thinking at completion of the match.
Srinivasan defeated Sameer Bhalla at No. 3 boys (3-6, 6-1, 10-5) and then Menon beat Miller in No. 2 boys (6-0, 5-7, 10-7) to reach point No. 10 and assure the Panthers of a team victory. Tuesday's eventual 14-5 outcome was only the beginning of the district run though, a run which may culminate in East and Allen meeting again in October's 10-5A Tournament with a trip to the Region II Tournament on the line.
"It's a nice win to start with," Allen said, "and hopefully it will give us confidence and maybe a little edge for next time."
"We got in too big of a hole and today was East's day," Quest added. "It's 1-1 now. I thought this match could go either way and I anticipate things going differently if we play again."
Prior to a potential rematch, East will continue district play at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on the road against McKinney while Allen hosts Wichita Falls and Wichita Falls Rider Saturday before welcoming 12-time defending district champ Plano West to its courts at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday.
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