Eden Prairie girls are red-hot on tennis court

Eden Prairie’s girls tennis team, buoyed by a strong nucleus of returning players from last year, is having one of the best seasons in program history with a 13-1 record.

The Eagles’ only loss of the season was to Minnetonka 5-2 in a Lake Conference match.

“Our biggest wins this year were against two section rivals, Prior Lake and Shakopee,” Eagle head coach Alexa Horoshak said. “We also had a great win over Breck 7-0. Breck is a team that goes to state every year.

“We have an experienced team and they have put it out there for years. This team has the best personality of any team I have coached. The girls really like each other.”

Bonding began early in the season when the Eagles took a road trip to Duluth with 50 girls from their varsity, JV and B squad teams. “That was a super fun time,” coach Horoshak said.

A 6-1 win over Shakopee Sept. 12 was gratifying because the Eagles were able to sweep singles and win a pair of doubles matches.

Lakshanya Selvakumar, the Eagles’ No. 1 singles player, won 6-0, 6-0 in a quick match. Mya Maras played No. 2 and won 6-1, 6-3. Weiwei Chen prevailed 6-3, 6-1 at No. 3 and Sofia Summers won 6-1, 6-1 at No. 4.

Shakopee scored its only point at first doubles with Ava Kale and Aurelia Lucas winning 6-4, 2-6, 6-0 over Zadie Walvatne and Sravika Vadrevu.

Eden Prairie’s Maya Varikuti and Isabelle Nowacki won 6-2, 4-6, 10-1 in second doubles and at third doubles Addison Premo and Tessa Plourde of the Eagles wrapped up a 6-0, 6-3 win.

In another recent match, the Eagles blanked Lakeville South 7-0.

Winners in singles were Selvakumar, Vadrevu, Maras and Chen.

Walvatne and Premo won first doubles. Varikuti and Isabelle Nowacki took the second doubles point. Plourde and Cece Nowacki had the only clean sweep of the match with their 6-0, 6-0 victory.