A rescheduled nonleague match against Arcadia didn’t come at the most opportune of times for the West Ranch girls tennis team.
Coming off an exhausting win over Valencia on Tuesday, the Wildcats were tasked with an Arcadia team that’s had their number of late and were down a singles player due to illness.
The laundry list of challenges proved to be too much Wednesday as the Wildcats were edged in a tiebreaking fashion, losing 81-70 in points, while they tied Arcadia 9-9 in games.
“You just look at the difference between the scores over the years and I think that definitely gives us something to be proud of,” said Wildcats coach Dina McBride, referring to the team’s 14-4 loss to Arcadia last season.
“Having the match rescheduled for today wasn’t great for us, with a match tomorrow, too. But they didn’t make any excuses and battled against a solid team.”
West Ranch entered the final round carrying a 7-5 advantage. With the other five matches of the round concluded, and West Ranch clinging to a 9-8 advantage, it all came down to a singles duel between Shaira Busnawi and Arcadia’s Chloe Barberi.
“That’s the sign of two really evenly matched teams when it comes down to one like that,” McBride said.
Barberi prevailed with a 7-6 win to tie the games at 9-9, sending the scoring to the tiebreaker where Arcadia sealed the win.
The Wildcats still sit at 4-0 in Foothill League play and host Saugus on Thursday. Arcadia (10-0) remained perfect on the season.
Jordyn McBride locked up two of the singles points for West Ranch (6-4, 2-6, 6-1). Sophomore Angelina Ciuffo, who’s usually a sub but was filling in due to an illness, grabbed the Cats’ only other singles point (1-6, 0-6, 7-5).
“I tried to not get too excited or too nervous throughout the day,” Ciuffo said. “It was awesome, though, being able to get a win against a team like this. It definitely added to my confidence.”
West Ranch covered for a subpar day of singles performances by taking six of nine doubles points. Wildcats pairings Audrey Kim and Emily Andrews, Olivia Bloome and Nicole Alvarez and Danielle Hettinger and Chase Eisenberg each won two of their three games.
All three pairings lost to the same Arcadia doubles team of Angela Qiu and Sunny Ng, with a 3-6 loss from Hettinger and Eisenberg accounting for the closest of the games.
