Girls tennis: Pioneers claim team title at Burlington Invite
Apr. 30—BURLINGTON — The Fairfield Maharishi girls tennis team continued to top the competition on Saturday at Dankwardt Park.
The Pioneers claimed the top three flight championships in singles play at the Burlington Invitational while finishing runner-up in three more flights. Ishita and Poojita Mukadam claimed titles in the top two flights of singles play before teaming up to capture the top doubles title in the tournament.
Ria Altynska-Ross won championship in the No. 3 singles flight before finishing as the runner-up along with Aparajita Karla in the No. 2 doubles flight for MSAE. Daira Valls was the runner-up in the No. 4 singles flight and the No. 3 doubles flight playing with Joyce Wang.
"I'm proud of our level of play in windy, unpredictable conditions," MSAE head girls tennis coach Lawrence Eyre said. "Their resourceful tennis brought Maharishi School our first team championship at this tournament in 15 years."
MSAE maintained a perfect record in competition this year, finishing dual play with an unbeaten record after earning a 7-2 win over previously-unbeaten Mount Pleasant heading into the tournament. Shutout wins in singles play Poojita Mukadam and Altynska-Ross helped propel the Pioneers while Kalra and Joyce Wang each earned 8-1 wins in the final two singles matches.
Doubles showed a similar pattern, with Isanta Vila and Eliana Situmeang winning 8-5 over the Mukadam sisters in the top doubles match for Mount Pleasant. The Pioneers again responded with 8-2 wins in the next two doubles matches.
Fairfield Maharishi (6-0) will host their own Invitational on Saturday at Punj Tennis Center. Davis County, Albia, Centerville and Burlington Notre Dame will each bring two singles players and two doubles teams to the annual round-robin event. Play gets underway at 9 a.m.
