WEST LAFAYETTE – Take care of your own business and the match will take care of itself, said Sneha Manikhandan.
The Harrison sophomore did not know how difficult or how stress-packed the situation would become.
But Mandikhandan could sense that more and more people had started to watch the fence along the strand to her number. 2 singles match against West Lafayette’s Lore Sebatta.
Manikhandan was trailing almost the entire third set and that pressure started to mount.
“Definitely when it came to crunch, I was getting a little nervous,” Manikhandan admitted. “I played in the USTA (United States Tennis Association) when I was in Texas and coming back is always kind of my thing.”
It was a razor-thin margin by Harrison’s 4-1 victory over Cumberland Courts and Manikhandan Accounted at Monday night.
Harrison sophomore no. 1 singles player Emma Gu already had a 6-0, 6-0 win over Amy Wang and Harrison’s No. 1 singles player. 2 doubles team of Bella Maynard and Gracie Buck defeated Margaret Prokopy and Hannah Park 6-2, 6-0, meaning the Raiders needed just one more point to win.
When West Side’s Lauren Kish and Leandra Suter topped Melannie Madson and Ainsley Heinz 6-1, 6-0 at no. 1 doubles, it made the singles match at no. 2 and 3 intense.
It marked a highly competitive season opener for both Harrison and West Lafayette, which spent much of last week conditioning indoors while the rain washed away.
“Just getting back out there was big, even if we lost, it was really close,” Kish said. “They fought really hard until the end. Everyone did great and it was just a couple points of difference. Hopefully in sectional, it will be different.”
A couple points.
That’s the difference Monday night and both teams are already looking ahead to a potential rematch in the next month.
Manikhandan rallied in the third set to force a tiebreaker, while her freshman teammate Sarah Wang did the same. 3 singles, leaving spectators’ heads ponging back and forth between the two courts.
Manikhandan wrapped up first, edging Sebatta 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Wang and fellow freshman Kayla Xu win a 5-7, 7-3, 7-6 (3) for a first-set loss after the comeback.
“We’re such big rivals. Everybody puts their all into it,” Kish said. “It’s so huge and we both want it so bad, so we get all the work done so hard and it’s so committed.”
That rivalry was based on heightened how narrow Monday’s match was, with Harrison’s 3-2 win over the Red Devils last year’s sectional championship match.
“We want to win sectionals this year and this is our first match, we want to start off well,” Manikhandan said. “They’re probably our toughest competitor in the area. Since they are so close, we have a little frenemy thing going on.”
Journal & Courier for Sam King covers sports. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.