In a heart-pounding rivalry match, the Menlo girls’ tennis team upended visiting Harker 5-2 to move into a share of the league lead.

The Knights split the season series with the Eagles (8-1) winning at home 4-3. Should both teams defeat their final opponent: SHP for Harker and Castilleja for Menlo, the Knights hold the advantage in sets, the Knights avoid the play-in game, and head straight to the Central Coast Section playoffs. But first, Menlo will play its regular-season finale Tuesday at home.

On Thursday, with the match knotted at 2, the Menlo girls’ tennis team chipped away, and pulled off two doubles wins in super tiebreakers.

Knights senior Elise Chen was first off the court with a speedy 6-3, 6-2 win at No.1 singles. Junior Milla Bardony and sophomore Ana Yang wrapped up a 6-0, 6-3 win at top-seeded doubles and the match was tied at 2. Junior Sophia Jia and freshman Leighton Bardony came back in a super tie-breaker 6-2, 4-6, 10-7and freshman Dorsa Amirkhany won in straight sets to seal the victory.

But, the Knights did one better when senior Sulia Gayle and sophomore Bella Lieu rallied from being down 6-9 and won five consecutive points to win the super tiebreaker.

“I was mainly trying to keep the energy up because I know when it gets down to those tough points and your energy gets down then you can crumble,” Gayle said. “It was just important for us to talk and be positive, and obviously it was great having our whole team cheering us on.”

 

Menlo wraps up the regular season Tuesday with a home match against Castilleja.