Apparently comebacks are as contagious right now as that weird illness that goes around Hegeman Hall each winter. Last week, both the boy’s and girl’s soccer teams engineered three-goal, second half comebacks on consecutive days and today the girls’ tennis team executed their version of an improbable victory by returning from the brink to defeat Port Jeff in a non-league tilt.

The girls split the four singles matches as Sadhana Sridhar (6-1, 6-1) and Nancy Lin (6-1, 3-6, 6-2) won for the Bears. The match would be decided by whichever team could win two of the remaining three doubles matches. The tandem of Ha Min Cho/Angela Wong (6-2, 7-6 (4)) dispatched with their opponents, but the Royals took the third doubles match, meaning the fate of the team rested on the second doubles team of Julia Braat and Jillian Ho.

The girls dropped the first set 4-6, but rebounded in the second set, winning it 6-4. However, the Royals took control in the third and deciding set. Trailing 2-5 in games and staring down double-match point, Braat and Ho staged an incredible rally, winning that game as well as the next four to take the set 7-5 and give the team a win over an opponent a league above them. Coach Jennifer Crane summed up the effort succinctly: “So. Mentally. Tough.”

It is because of that toughness that the girls are undefeated in League VI play at 7-0, in sole possession of first place. The Bears return to the hardcourt this Wednesday against league opponent Rocky Point.

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