Dense clouds hover above the city as raindrops wash away the suffocating smoke that had plagued the Bay. After nearly two weeks of masks and sealed windows, rain restores the varsity women’s tennis team’s lungs, but not their NCS.
The Division II NCS team championships were originally scheduled for Nov. 6, 8, and 10, said varsity women’s tennis coach Jim Landes.
“We were in the middle of our quarterfinal series of matches against Berlin Academy [when NCS called off the match due to poor air quality],” Landes said.
Piedmont already won four out of their seven matches against Berlin Academy, which was enough for them to win and progress to the semifinals. Although Piedmont advanced, the remaining teams were unable to finish their matches.
“The smoke made our tennis delayed by just a few days originally,” co-captain and senior Kiana Kasrovi said. “Then the smoke got worse.”
The smoke continued until Nov. 21, the day before Thanksgiving, causing NCS to postpone the championship until after the break, Kasrovi said. Rain brought an end to the smoke, but continued through the last week of November, postponing NCS even further.
“We may have been able to play on Dec. 1, but it was called due to heavy rain,” Landes said. “Once NCS made the decision, that was the end of the season. We wouldn’t be able to finish it.”
A few days later, NCS changed their mind and rescheduled the tournament to play the semifinals on Dec. 6 and the finals on Dec. 7, Landes said. NCS emailed the four remaining schools–Piedmont, Bishop O’Dowd, Head Royce, and Branson–but the other three schools declined to play.
“They said the season is over for them, and that their players have moved on to playing winter sports,” Landes said.
Being the only team willing to continue, Landes asked NCS to grant Piedmont the first place trophy. However, he doubts they will be awarded as NCS prefers to finish matches on the court.
“I know we would have won it,” Landes said. “I’m very confident of that.”
Piedmont already beat Bishop O’Dowd twice and Branson once during the regular season. Branson has opposed Piedmont in the finals for the last five years and most likely would have this year, Landes said. The team was lined up to win their sixth NCS title in a row.
“[NCS is] what we build up to the entire season, so to not even be able to finish it is kind of just anticlimactic,” co-captain and senior Lauren Young said.
Kasrovi also shared the feeling of disappointment.
“As a captain, I really wanted to be a part of a team and lead them to the finals and to say we won,” Kasrovi said. “I did that for the past three years, and I was super excited to do it again. But I guess not everything happens the way you want.”
Although Kasrovi is happy with the season overall, she wondered why NCS never moved the championships onto indoor courts.
“It sucks because maybe we could have played indoors when the smoke came, or last week or two weeks ago when it was raining a lot,” Kasrovi said.
However, Landes said the few indoor courts in the area may not have been able to host an NCS tournament. Places such as ClubSport in Pleasanton are closed off to non-members, while other courts such as San Francisco Bay Club are simply too busy with members during weekends and afternoons to find the space to host a tournament.
“On the other hand, I’m not sure that NCS made any effort to [move to indoor courts] either,” Landes said.
Kasrovi said NCS officials might just not care about the tournament as much as the players do.
“It’s kind of like [the NCS officials] didn’t really want to deal with it anymore,” Kasrovi said. “But we really want to because it’s a big part of Piedmont tennis to go to the finals and usually win every year.”
One positive opportunity emerged from November’s tumultuous season, however. Due to a series of delays which resulted in a shortage of D1 players, Piedmont was able to enter in the D1 NCS individuals championship. Senior Angela Huang competed in singles, while Young and sophomore Makenna Thiel competed as a doubles team, Landes said.
“Angela wasn’t even seeded and still won it,” Landes said.
Thiel and Young won the doubles section, making it the first time that Piedmont won both singles and doubles in D1 since 1983, Landes said.
“I’m happy with my performance,” Young said. “But I think for the team it would have been really nice just to be able to play that one last match since all the girls put so much hard work in and it really showed.”
Although the team was unable to demonstrate their skills at the D2 NCS team championships, they succeeded at other notable tournaments throughout the season. They won first place in their league for the 19th year in a row, dating back to 1999 when the first records were kept, Landes said.
“This year we also got invited to play [in the California Tennis Classic] at Stanford, which is invitation only,” Young said.
Piedmont came in tenth place in the first year they were ever invited, competing against some of the best schools in the country, Landes said.
“We did better than any other NCS team,” Landes said. “The two other schools that were in it came in 14th and 16th, and those are both D1 schools: Montavista and Dougherty Valley.”
Although Piedmont’s small school size confines the tennis team to D2, Landes said that if Piedmont was able to compete in D1, they would have been seeded in second place behind Miramonte.
“I think if we were able to play D1 team tennis this year, we would have had a good shot of winning,” Landes said.
Miramonte was one of only two teams to beat Piedmont this year, as they lost 5-4, but competed without Huang, one of their top players, Landes said.
“This was a great season,” Landes said. “Despite the fact that we didn’t finish [NCS], we went 25 wins, two losses, and two ties, which is an unbelievable record.”
PAGE_BREAK: PageBreak
TIMELINE for short form:
November 6, 8, 10: D2 Team NCS scheduled
November 8: D2 Team NCS postponed due to poor air quality
November 21: Air quality returns to healthy levels
…
December 1: D2 Team NCS scheduled but cancelled due to rain
December 3, 4: D1 Individual NCS
December 4: D2 Team NCS back on
December 6, 7: D2 Team NCS scheduled but cancelled after other teams dropped out
PAGE_BREAK: PageBreak
Lauren Young – she – captain
Usually team NCS will happen second week in November and so we got through half of it and we actually we had to stop at the semi-finals because of the smoke. And so half of the teams didn’t get to finish and then it kept getting pushed back, pushed back because of the smoke and then rain and so it was supposed to be last weekend. Last Saturday we were going to do the semis and the finals, but it obviously was raining. So we couldn’t do that. And then it got canceled. Then we were going to try and do it this Friday but all the teams Branson, Head Royce and O’Dowd all backed out. They just didn’t want to play and it’s kind of understandable since it’s been a really long season. Some girls have different sports to play, and it’s hard to keep it going.
I’m definitely really disappointed about [NCS] just because the girls tennis team have a five year streak in NCS, and we’re such a strong team this year that I think we definitely would have won so that’s kind of disappointing also that’s what we build up to the entire season so to not even be able to finish it is kind of just anticlimactic.
We definitely still we had practice whenever we could and we tried to hype people up about it and the girls are really great about cooperating even though sometimes we don’t know what’s going on and I’ll be like “Oh our match is today, but if it’s raining obviously we can’t play,” and that happened several times where it just kept getting pushed back and pushed back where I didn’t know if we were playing. I think communication and also just complementing and just being supportive of everyone.
I really don’t think there are that many indoor courts available in the area so that’s
the main reason
I’m happy with my performance because I just won in NCS D1 individuals and so that was really awesome because me, McKenna Thiel, and Angela Huang, our team is usually D2, but we got pulled up to play D1, and we all won so Piedmont took all of those.
But I think for the team it would have been really nice just to be able to play that one last match since all the girls put so much hard work in and it really showed. Everyone improved over the season and on the off season.
This year we got invited to play at Stanford, which is invitation only, and then you’re playing with D1 schools throughout the state. And so this year has definitely been a strong year for tennis, which is really awesome.
Angela Huang – she – varsity tennis player, senior
We were supposed to have NCS when the fires had started and then it got canceled and then we had break and then when we came back it just started to rain and everything, so I think just no one else wanted to play so it just got cancelled.
Basically [NCS individuals] was for all the division one schools.
It was just like a regular tournament. I represented Piedmont, but I think it gives me my own points for my own ranking just through NorCal.
I hope we could have won and continued our streak especially for my senior year, but I think with D1 NCS and individuals and how Piedmont won both doubles and singles, that’s still pretty good for us, and we know we could have done really well for NCS team.
Kiana Kasrovi – she – varsity girls tennis captain
Basically the smoke made our tennis delayed by just a few days originally and then the smoke got worse so it got delayed again through Thanksgiving break and then we came back and there was rain and there were just difficulties to schedule it with other teams and some teams were like, “we’re just going to drop out” so that kind of messed up the dynamic that was originally happening and then it was just back and forth literally 10 times. I checked my email every minute because something different would come like, “oh now we’re having it. okay now it’s not happening.” all this confusing stuff and then finally they told us that the other teams forfeited and decided not to play so we technically won but we didn’t actually win because we didn’t get to play so it kind of sucks because it was my senior year and I really hoped to play. And as a captain, I really wanted to be a part of a team and lead them to the finals and to say we won and all of that. It’s a really good feeling, and I did that for the past three years, and I was super excited to do it again but guess everything doesn’t happen the way you want, but my team is still really good this year we were undefeated and the team bonded pretty well. everyone really got along, and I’m still happy I got to be part of the team for the rest of the season.
It was hard because people would be texting the group chat like, “what’s happening? what’s happening?” and then when we told them that it was fully canceled when we still didn’t know what was happening but that’s what our coach told us to tell the team, everyone was so disappointed and it’s hard because we can’t really do much. we don’t have that much say in talking to the NCS board and stuff. our team was like, “oh we should talk to the actual NCS officials and stuff and we should try to get this to happen.” But I was just trying to stay positive and talk about all the good things that we did in the season and all of the achievements that we had made and stuff, so to try to balance that out. Even though it’s hard to say that we could have played NCS, we still had a lot of fun in other ways and made some good progress as a team.
That really is something that I from the beginning I was like “Why don’t we just play at SF Bay club literally indoors?” and there’s definitely money that could be used to help fund that but my coach was just like oh “it’s like not in my hands” I guess he couldn’t really do much about it but it sucks because we could have played literally when the smoke came but indoors or literally last week or two weeks ago when it was raining a lot. all of these things could have happened. I think that the NCS officials just don’t care as much as we do and it’s kind of like they don’t really want to deal with it anymore but we really want to because it’s kind of a big part of Piedmont tennis to go to the finals and usually win every year, so that kind of sucked that we didn’t get to play indoors because I was really leaning towards playing it, but again, we don’t have that much say.
Jim Landes – he – varsity girls tennis coach
We were scheduled to play the team championships in early November. I believe the dates were November 6th, 8th, and 10th. I think it was on the 8th that the smoke became intense down in the Bay Area because of the fires, and we were in the middle of our quarter final match against Berlin Academy. We fortunately clinched the match, we won the first four matches which is enough to clinch. We only have four courts, so then the other three matches were still on the court. And then we got a notice from NCS that we had to stop playing because of the unhealthy air quality. So that was on the 8th. We stopped playing. We moved into the semi finals because as I said, we’d already won 4 out of 7 matches. So that was enough to clinch the match, and then as you know, the air quality was unhealthy for almost two weeks. And so when we finally tried to reschedule, we were running into Thanksgiving. So they attempted to reschedule things after Thanksgiving. That was in the last week of November, and unfortunately, it rained a lot that week. So we got postponed, and we were trying to play the semi finals and finals on December 1, and it was raining again. By 10 a.m. we had to call it off even though probably by 11:30 a.m. or so the rain had stopped. We may have been able to play. But it was called, and NCS made the decision at that time that that was the end of the season. We wouldn’t be able to finish it.
Then we played on the third and the fourth of December the NCS individual tournament. So we were able to play that and we had already played the individual tournament for the Division Two tournament which is what we’re normally in. We went up to Fortuna, which is near Eureka, and we were able to get away from this unhealthy air. We played that before Thanksgiving.
We had one single player in that, Emily Becker, and we had one double team, Audrey Edel and Audrey Call. The double team came in third, and Emily lost in the quarterfinals.
And then fortunately, we were able to enter into the D1 individual [tournament] as well, which we don’t usually get to do because there were fewer players in it than usual, being it was so late in the season, it got delayed. So Angela went into the singles. She wasn’t even seated and still won it. And then in the doubles, I was able to substitute one player. So I put in Mekenna Thiel who’s our number one player, and she played with Lauren Young and they won the doubles. And that was I think the first time that’s happened since 1983 that we won singles and doubles in D1. Amazing.
Tuesday, the fourth of December, NCS changed their mind and said we could finish the D2 team [tournament], playing the semi finals on Thursday the 6th and the finals on Friday the 7th at Piedmont. They emailed all four schools that were left in the semi finals, that was us, Bishop O’Dowd, Head Royce, and Branson. But Piedmont was the only one that said we’ll play. The other three schools declined to play. They said the season is over for them, and they have players that are on the team playing other sports. It’s too late. It’s over. So basically we didn’t finish it, and I’ve asked for Piedmont to be awarded the first place trophy because we were willing to continue. I doubt they will grant that. They want to finish the matches on the court.
I can’t officially say it’s number six, but it’s not anybody else’s title either. It’s just kind of a missing year.
I know we would have won it. I’m very confident of that. We beat Bishop O’Dowd, who we were supposed to play in the semis, twice during the regular season. And we also beat Branson during the regular season. And I think we beat Branson quite convincingly, who probably would have been our opponent for the finals and has been for the last five years.
There’s not that many indoor courts in the area. They don’t really have the money for that, I don’t think, because you have to pay for indoor courts, and certain places like Club Sport in Pleasanton don’t let non-members play generally. I shouldn’t say that as a rule because we played NCS there outdoors. There’s the San Francisco Bay Club, which is very busy in the afternoon and evening with their members, so it’s just not easy to get into a club. On the other hand, I’m not sure that they made any effort to do so either.
Everybody that was in our starting lineup could have played.
That was a great season. Despite the fact that we didn’t finish, we went 25 wins, two losses, and two ties, which is an unbelievable record. We we came in tenth in the California Tennis Classic in the first year we were ever invited. It’s an invitational high school tournament at Stanford that has some of the best teams in the country, and we did better than any other NCS team, while the two others that were in it came in 14th and 16th, and those are both D1 schools. Montavista and Dougherty Valley.
I think if we were able to play D1 team tennis this year, we had a good shot of winning. We would have been seated number two right behind Miramonte, who we played. It’s one of our only losses during the season. We lost 5-4 without one of our top players.
We had a great season.
We won the league and we haven’t lost the league championship for the girls, going back to 1999 when records were first kept.
