Ridge girls tennis repeats as North 2 Group IV champion

EDISON For the second-straight year the Ridge High School girls tennis team is the North 2 Group IV sectional champion.

The fourth-seeded Red Devils (11-2) defeated No. 3 J.P. Stevens 4-1 on Tuesday afternoon with victories at first and second singles and first and second doubles.

The Red Devils will play in the Group IV semifinals on Thursday at Mercer County Park.

“We’re really excited to go to the next round and keep playing,” Ridge’s Dilara Shahani said. “We never give up, just now we were on the edge of winning or losing but we kept going and it worked out.”

J.P. Stevens (13-3) didn’t make it easy for Ridge on Tuesday as all three singles matches went to three sets. The Red Devils’ Chrissie Giberna clinched the win at first singles with a 0-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4) victory over Claire Pan.

In the third set Giberna was up 3-2 but Pan battled back to tie it 3-3, then took the lead 4-3. Giberna tied it 4-4 and retook the 5-4 lead, but Pan wouldn’t go away and again the match was tied, 5-5, then again at 6-6 before Giberna took over and closed it out.

“I just said I’m never out of a match so I just told myself to keep battling and keep the ball in the court and the longer I make the rally the better the chance of winning the point,” Giberna said of keeping herself in the game after losing the first set 6-0. “Keeping the ball in the court, at the end my forehand was really working and I think at the end I sort of had to keep my head together and it worked.”

Ridge’s first and second doubles teams won in straight sets to give the Red Devils an early 2-0 advantage. Annie Giberna and Kritika Sekar won at first doubles 6-2, 6-2 over Alyssa Desai and Divya Talesra.

At second doubles, Camila Scharlach and Shahani won the first set 6-1, but found themselves trailing 4-3 in the second set to Jessica Ho and Ishani Kulkarni.

Scharlach and Shahani battled back to take a 5-4 lead, split the next two games to lead 6-5 and pulled it out in the last game to win 7-5.

“I think we give as much as we can and I think the beginning of the second set we were like, we won the first set, serve, relax and then we had to get back in the game,” Scharlach said. “So we tried our hardest and we came through.”

J.P. Stevens then won at third singles as Jackie Quan defeated Ridge’s Amanda Vinges 3-6, 6-3, 6-0.

“Just making some more errors and probably hitting more to her strength, which probably wasn’t a good idea, so I tried to stay away from that later in the match,” Quan said about losing the first set. “It feels really good knowing that I can fix my mistakes and be able to get back up within the same match rather than making mistakes the entire time.”

The Red Devils’ Navya Yemula lost the first set to Deepti Talesra at second singles after Talesra rebounded from being down 5-2 to win 7-5. Yemula then won the second set 6-3 and was up 5-2 in the third set, but Talesra again came back to within 5-4. Yemula settled down in the last game to win the set 6-4.

J.P. Stevens may be out of the state tournament, but its season isn’t over as the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament continues on Saturday with the semifinals and will conclude Tuesday at Thomas Edison Park.

“I like the fact that it came down to the better players than a doubles team because they have a lot more experience, so it really was a singles battle and I had no idea that first singles would be that close,” J.P. Stevens coach Ellen Pisano said. “So I was proud that Claire went three sets and when they’re all in their third sets you just rely on their game and they knew what to do and it was a well-played match on both sides.”

Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com

Ridge 4, J.P. Stevens 1

Singles: Chrissie Giberna (R) d. Claire Pan (JPS) 0-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-4); Navya Yemula (R) d. Deepti Talesra (JPS) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Jackie Quan (JPS) d. Amanda Vinges (R) 3-6, 6-3, 6-0. Doubles: Annie Giberna and Kritika Sekar (R) d. Alyssa Desai and Divya Talesra (JPS) 6-2, 6-2; Camila Scharlach and Dilara Shahani (R) d. Jessica Ho and Ishani Kulkarni 6-1, 7-5.