The Princess Margaret Mustangs tennis team earned a 7-4 win in its first league match in the AA Okanagan Valley.
The Oliver Hornets bowed to them Wednesday at Princess Margaret. The doubles pairing of Taylor Corrie and Jaqueline Ford won both of their matches without losing a game. The Mustangs also had strong performances by Nikhil Mohan (singles and mixed doubles), Colton Van Camp (doubles), Manmeet Singh and Harry Gill (doubles). Mustangs coach Jim Kocsis was also pleased with the play of Madison Winter, Callan Cooper, Rylee McKinlay, Gavin Pattman and Ben Phillips.
“They have good players. Have good skill,” said Ford, in her second season with the Mustangs of the Hornets. “Taylor and I played really well. We had some close sets, but other than that we won everything.”
Kocsis said that Ford was exceptional last season and is building on it with confidence.
In the matches, Kocsis wanted to see his players execute what they worked on in practice and develop a better knowledge of the game.
“I thought they played really well. We have been focusing on consistency and for a lot of them they are playing their first matches of the year, first matches ever,” said Kocsis.
McKinlay, who hasn’t played since she was 10 or 12-years-old, said she was a bit nervous, but had fun. McKinlay, who also played on the senior girls volleyball team in the fall, said there are similarities between the sports.
“It’s a game of mistakes. The player that’s going to win is the one that makes the least mistakes. I just happened to make more,” she laughed. “It was fun though. My serve, I need to get that under control.”
The Mustangs coach is now looking forward to next week when the team travels to Kelowna to face Okanagan Mission, a top team in the pool that finished third in provincials last year.
As for the Hornets, coach Sabra McIntyre said her group played pretty good.
“We have a lot of first year players. They are slowly learning, but they are getting there,” said McIntyre. “I think they are very excited. Fun to see that.”
Some of the good things McIntyre saw were ball placement, strategy and learning to read opponents.
“Maggie definitely is the better team today, but we had a few successes.”