By Bill Alden

With his Princeton Day School girls’ tennis team having posted three 3-2 wins on the way to a 4-0 start, Ed Tseng is seeing parallels between the squad and a storied baseball team of the 1990s.

“We have a pretty deep team, I look at it as like the 1996 Yankees where nobody was a superstar but everyone stepped up,” said PDS head coach Tseng.

Like that version of the Yankees, PDS has shown a penchant of stepping up in the clutch, proving that it can come through in close matches.

“From the girls’ perspectives, it is nice to have those close ones because it is ‘oh wow, we can pull these out,’” said Tseng, whose team defeated Stuart Country Day 5-0 last Monday in moving to 4-0. “So the next time it is a tight match, it is ‘well, OK, we can do this.’”

At first singles, sophomore Grace Marshall has been doing very well so far this season. “Grace is steady and a smart player,” said Tseng. “She has been working hard, it is a nice surprise to have her at the top.”

Senior Helen Peterson has emerged as a pleasant surprise for the Panthers at second singles.

“This is going to be Helen’s first solid varsity season, she has kind of been a swing player in past years,” noted Tseng. “She is a nice athlete, she has been doing some great things for us.”

An exchange student from Turkey, sophomore Selin Kessaf, has brought some athleticism at third singles.

“Selin is a competitor,” said Tseng. “She trained hard in Turkey and she likes to win.”

PDS boasts some battle-tested veterans in doubles with seniors Arya Jha and Tarika Kumar pairing up at first doubles and senior Emma Dries and junior Giulia Gerschel playing in the second doubles spot.

“They have great experience, they play well together,” said Tseng of his first doubles pair.

“They have different personalities so they help each other out and they are competitors too. The second doubles is also a great team. We have been working hard with our doubles strategy so I think they are going to be able to do some damage this season too.”

Tseng is hoping that PDS will do some damage in the upcoming Mercer County Tournament, which starts on September 25 at Mercer County Park.

“In counties and preps, anything can happen,” said Tseng, whose team will tune up for the MCT with a match at Blair Academy on September 23.

“I had no expectations going into 2011 and we won it. The goal is always to try to win it and we will see how it goes at the end of the two days.”

In Tseng’s view, it is going to be a fun fall, no matter how the results come out.

“I think I am happiest that everyone gets along, we are a big family and everyone supports each other,” said Tseng.

“That goes a long way in terms of culture for the day in, day out of practice, competition, and bus rides. There are no egos, attitudes, or cliques.”