No. 3 seed Mustangs topple No. 1 seed Moorestown
LINWOOD – The Mainland Regional High School girls tennis team upset top seed Moorestown 3-2 to claim the South Jersey Group III championship Tuesday.
Three of the matches went to three sets.
Mainland’s second and third singles, Hannah Carson and Christina Htay, respectively, won their matches and Anna Geubtner and Elizabeth Ong triumphed at second singles to carry the day for the Mustangs.
Carson lost the first set to Quaker Kaitlyn Burkhart, 5-7, then took the next two sets 6-3, 6-1.
Htay topped Maya Butani in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Ong and Geubtner went to a 7-5 tiebreaker in the first set over Moorestown’s Erica Zhang and Priya Panganamumula then finished them off 6-3 in the second set.
Both of the matches Mainland lost, at first singles and first doubles, went to three sets.
First singles Khushi Thakkar lost the first set to Moorestown’s Lia Streibich 6-2, then came back to win the second set 6-3. Streibich took the third set 6-3 to win that match.
Mustangs Maddie Dennis and Samantha Goldberg also dropped their first set to Quakers Laura Sullivan and Charlotte Morrison, 6-4, but won the second set by an identical score. In a third-set tiebreaker, Sullivan and Morrison prevailed – narrowly – 11-9.
Moorestown has often been the nemesis for Mainland as the Mustangs have made it to multiple South Jersey finals in the past but fell to the Quakers. Mainland also won the finals when Moorestown was moved to the Central Jersey sectional and they didn’t get the chance to play each other to determine the best team. In a pandemic-shortened season last fall, the Mainland girls went undefeated.
Mainland improved to 15-1 with the win and Moorestown fell to 17-7. The Mustangs remain undefeated in the Cape-Atlantic League (10-0).
– DAVID NAHAN/SENTINEL STAFF