DOUBLE PLAY: Princeton High girls’ tennis first doubles player Ashna Bushan makes a volley last week at the Mercer County Tournament as partner Maya-Alexandra Todorov looks on. The pair won the MCT first doubles title, topping Sienna Kulynych and Grace Weekes of the Lawrenceville School 6-0, 6-1 in the final last Wednesday at the Mercer County Park Tennis Facility. Their triumph helped PHS take fourth in the team standings at the event. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

When it was all over last Wednesday afternoon, Maya-Alexandra Todorov and Ashna Bushan hugged each other on court 8 at the Mercer County Park Tennis Facility.

The pair were celebrating having just won the first doubles final at the Mercer County Tournament. Living up to their ranking, the top-seeded team of Todorov and Bushan rolled through the competition, winning each match in straight sets.

In the final, they topped Sienna Kulynych and Grace Weekes of the Lawrenceville School 6-0, 6-1, dominating the match with their combination of superb net play and solid groundstrokes.

Their title helped PHS take fourth in the team standings at the event won by the Lawrenceville School.

Junior Todorov was proud of the way the pair played in their march through the draw.

“We honestly just did our best, all of the teams were really strong,” said Todorov. “We just tried to keep up the momentum.”

In the final, they lost momentum briefly, losing the first game of the second set but quickly regrouped.

“We struggled at the beginning of the second set but afterwards it went well,” said Todorov.

Bushan, a sophomore, sensed that the pair would close the deal.

“We didn’t want to be overconfident, so we went into the second set and tried to keep going,” said Bushan.

For Todorov, who won the MCT first doubles title last year with Ashley Chen, earning a second straight crown was special.

“It means so much to me because last year it was with Ashley and this year it was with Ashna,” said Todorov. “It is great to be here. I think we were expecting to play together this year. We are really good friends on and off the court.”

In reflecting on her partnership with Bushan, Todorov believes thevir skills complement each other.

“I feel like playing at the net is my strength and Ashna is pretty solid from the baseline, so I think it is a pretty good combination,” added Todorov.

Bushan, for her part, was thrilled to earn her first county crown. “I was second doubles with Sophie [Miller] and we got third,” said Bushan.

“It is really exciting to play with one of my best friends this year and win my first counties.”

The pair came together quickly when they became a team this summer after their previous partners graduated.

“We were pretty good from the start,” said Bushan. “We are a powerful team, we are good together.”

PHS head coach Sarah Hibbert sensed that the duo of Todorov and Bushan would be formidable.

“I knew they had the potential to be a really strong team,” said Hibbert, noting that PHS has developed a stranglehold on the first doubles flight at the MCT, having won the title at least five years in a row. “Maya won it last year at first doubles and Ashna was good at second doubles; they both had a great season last year with different partners and their partners graduated. It felt like a natural pairing. They are both really strong singles players as well.”

The pair’s strengths match up well. “Maya is a natural volleyer; she has very good hands and the height and you can’t teach that,” said Hibbert. “She has the natural willingness to poach, she knows where she should be and she knows where to place the ball. Ashna has really solid groundstrokes, so she sets up Maya really well. She has got good serves as well — she has worked really hard on her game this year.”

At second doubles, senior Scarlett Cai and freshman Sophia Bruhn produced a spirited run to the final, edging top-seeded Anusha Kumar and Odette Liu of WW/P-North 7-6, 6-4 in the semis before third-seeded Charlotte Aitken-Davies and Emily Lee of Lawrenceville defeated them 6-1, 6-4 in the final.

“They were a little disappointed with the result in the final but they outperformed anything that was expected of them,” said Hibbert. “They didn’t have a seed because they hadn’t gotten a chance to prove themselves yet. Being a freshman and a senior, it is a new team. They really came together today. They knew they had lost a close one to North on Friday. Scarlett had rolled her ankle in that match and wasn’t able to play at her. It is a new day, a new situation. They started off strong and then dropped a bunch of games in a row. They came back and went to a tiebreak in the third set of semi and win that over the No. 1 seed. That was a huge match for them.”

In the final, Cai and Bruhn battled hard before succumbing to Aitken-Davies and Lee.

“The Lawrenceville team was a very strong team and they had a very powerful game all around,” said Hibbert. “They ran onto a tough team in the final. They took out a seed in the first round and a top seed in the semis. It is really exciting for them, that is a great showing.”

Sophomore Katie Qin had a nice showing at third singles, winning the consolation final.

“Katie had a really tough job, she had to play a lot of tennis,” said Hibbert. “She had an unseeded player who maybe should have been seeded and fought through that match. She won the consolation backdraw, including five matches in two days. It is a lot of tennis, a mix of best of three sets and pro sets. Unfortunately, the way the seeding worked out, she had a very tough draw but she played well.”

The squad’s other singles players, junior Lada Labas at second and freshman Phoebe Decker at first, gained some valuable experience.

“Lada had to play to a round of 32 match and then she had to play the fifth seed; she played a great match there and won it in the third set in a tiebreak,” said Hibbert of Labas who fell 7-5, 6-3 in the quarterfinals to third-seeded Vanessa Kudelya of WW/P-South.

“Then she had to go up against the third seed in her third match of the day. She lost a really close one there where she fought very hard. Phoebe had a good first round and the she ran into a tough seeded player. It was competitive.”

Looking ahead, Hibbert believes that fighting hard in the MCT will help her players when they get into the state tourney.

“The girls all fought to the best of their ability, we had some really competitive matches and played some good tennis,” said Hibbert, whose team advanced to the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) Group 3 state final last year. “Hopefully this will help them since it was so early this year. The states are coming up in two weeks. It was a competitive tournament — it was a lot of tennis in two days.”

Todorov, for her part, is primed to keep competing. “We are pretty confident that we make it can far in states,” said Todorov. “We are going to work together and do our best.”