Devon Horn
ASU Student Journalist

Marcos de Niza falls to AZ College Prep in regular season finale

October 16, 2023 by Devon Horn, Arizona State University


Marcos de Niza and AZ College Prep line up ahead of the regular season finale. (photo by Devon Horn/AZPreps365)

Devon Horn is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Marcos de Niza High School for AZPreps365.com

Two of the 4A conference's top-10 teams Marcos de Niza (11-3) and AZ College Prep (13-1) faced off in their final regular season match on Monday.

Division II's current seventh-ranked Marcos de Niza Padres lost at the No. 5 AZ College Prep Knights, 6-3.

Marcos de Niza head coach Claudia Ramirez will look to bounce back before post-season play begins this weekend.

"We've got to regroup," Ramirez said. "We got individual state coming up on Friday, hopefully we go to Saturday. My 1 and 2 kind of carried us today, with that 3-6 score. We're just going to get back and start grinding again this week at practice, just working on back to basics."

Marcos de Niza freshman phenom, Lian Pan, continued her dominance, winning both sets in her singles and doubles matches, which she has done in every game so far this year.

In the end, though, it wasn't enough to keep up with the Knights.

AZ College Prep got a major win on Senior Night, giving AZ College Prep momentum heading into the postseason, which begins with the singles tournament at Independence High School this Friday.

Fatima Ahmed, Lillian McNeil, and Anshika Kedia were among the Knights who played their final high school regular season match Tuesday.

The match started with each team's No. 1 player matchup, Pan against ACP junior Sumedha Balwadji. Pan won both sets, 21-13 and 21-9.

Later in the match, Pan paired up with her doubles partner and senior Naiya Laux to take down ACP junior Jing Liu and senior Fatima Ahmed, 21-19 and 21-16.

Earlier in the game, In addition, Laux defeated Ahmed in singles, 21-18, 16-21, and 21-19, respectively.

But from the onset, it was all Knights.

The third singles match was Padres senior Aaliyah Sordia against Knights junior Jing Liu, who won in three sets, 21-7, 20-22, and 24-22.

The Padres' junior Putu Widiyanti fell to ACP senior Lillian McNeil, also in three sets. These three were scored 21-10, 13-21, and 22-20, respectively.

The Knights were able to take the last two singles matched in just two sets each, as sophomore Yagna Kalindindi took down senior Shaylee Luna, with scores of 21-15 and 23-21.

Things were rounded out with junior Aarna Patel, who knocked off senior Kalina Copado, 21-13, and 21-11.

In closing the team match, ACP was also able to win the last two doubles matches after the win from Pan and Laux. ACP's McNeil and Balwadji ousted Widiyanti and Sordia, 21-17, and 21-19. The last match of the night saw the Patel and Kedia sneak past the Padres' Luna and Copado, 14-21, 21-13, and 21-12, sealing a momentus win for ACP.