Written by: Nikki Than Win
Edited by: Chen Kexin and Lydia Ong
Photos by: EusoffWorks
Fongling 5-11, 4-11, 5-11 (L/L/L)
Elicia 6-11, 11-8, 10-12, 4-11 (L/W/L/L)
Lingyan 11-4, 11-2, 11-3 (W/W/W)
Farah 11-8, 11-2, 11-5 (W/W/W)
Felicia 9-11, 11-9, 5-11, 8-11 (L/W/L/L)
Overall: Eusoff 2-3 Raffles
Fong Ling, Fish (Felicia), Bik Jeun, Ling Yan, Elicia, Violet, Farah
On a cold and rainy thursday evening, our girls from Eusoff squash once again faced a demon from their past, Raffles Hall. Having been knocked out by this very team last year, our girls were determined to beat them this year with our super stacked line up. With our heads raised high, we were once again bested by this giant of a team, a bittersweet ending to Eusoff Squash’s IHG journey.
Game 1(1st Singles, Fong Ling)
Fong ever ready to smash the ball back with her thunderous claps
First up to the plate was Fong Ling. She had not faced much adversity in her previous games, having eased passed most of them up to this point. Her opponent was a strong and confident player from Raffles Hall who seemed undaunted by the success of the Eusoff girls thus far. Fong as her teammates passionately called her, had a slow start to her games. Giving away a little more than a few points due to her nerves and her own mistakes in the first halves of the sets. It was only in the later halves of the sets that Fong got over her nerves and started playing like the dominant player she had been to this point. After a hard fought battle of long rallies and mind boggling foot-work, Fong conceded the first game to Raffle’s strongest player with scores of 5-11,4-11 and 5-11.
Game 2 (2nd Singles , Elicia)
Elicia calmly side lunges to return her ball
Next up with Elicia with an E. She started her warm up with coach Elvis from our boys Squash team even before Game 1 ended. Elicia had a shy demeanour about her which was obvious to anyone that was spectating her game. When the referees eventually called for her to step into the court for her first set,it was clear that she took a while to emerge from her shell. It seemed that Elicia was the favourite to win the game, as the opponents from Raffles were all taken aback when their player had managed to score the first few points against us with the classic hit long and drop short tactic. Elicia was slightly draggy on her feet but when the TM Kexin shouted with a fiery passion for the team and game, “RUN ELICIA RUN!”, she started to run a little harder. After giving the first set to warm up her engine, the monster Elicia gave a strong contest to RH, even managing to take back the second set, to the thunderous cheers of her teammates, but eventually gave the game away with scores of 6-11,11-8, 10-12,4-11.
Game 3 (3rd Singles, Ling Yan)
Our Eusoff MVP is recognisable even with just her back - Ling Yan masterfully returns a drop shot which happened x 1982328936 times
With Eusoff being down two games, Ling Yan knew she had to bring it back, as the fate of Eusoff Squash’s IHG dream came down to her game. With her sweet smile and silent confidence she entered the arena calm as a clam. In my pre-game interview with her, Ling Yan was beaming with confidence. When asked how many points she would win by this time, she gave off a smirk? and a shrug, indicating that this should be a piece of cake! Or so that was what I imagine as she actually just gave me a sweet and reassuring smile and I knew that she would not lose her game. Just as we all had predicted, Ling Yan did not have much of a problem disposing her opponent on the court, breezing through all three games without even breaking a sweat. In the first set she scored seven consecutive points on her opponent which was plain insanity, she took the sets with 11-4, 11-2, 11-3, keeping the embers of Eusoff’s IHG dream alive and burning strong.
Game 4(4th Singles, Farah)
Farah easily returning the ball with quiet determination - otherwise she'll be subjected to coach (and bf) Elvis's "FOCUS FARAH"
Farah was next, many consider her our strongest player on the Squash team in Eusoff. She was unfazed that we were down by a game in this best of five series to advance to the next stage of the competition. She was off to a strong start with a thunderous smash taking the first point with sheer confidence. Farah was easily ahead in the first set, with a score of 9-4 we knew that we had this game in the bag. However going on cruise control was the last thing on our minds as her opponent from Raffles Hall started to slowly inch closer to our score eventually scoring four consecutive points to nearly catch up with 9-8. However, Farah powered through to take the first set with a score of 11-8. Past this point, Farah turned on the heat and kept it up taking the following two sets as well with a final score of 11-8,11-2 and 11-5.
Game 5(5th Singles, Felicia)
Fish displaying her crazy strong serves that managed to net her a few points throughout her sets
This was all it came down to, the final game. Raffles were up two games but Eusoff managed to bring it back two whole games and now it was anyone’s game to take. Felicia definitely felt the pressure and Raffles started off the game with four whole points ahead of us with four to nothing to start. Felicia literally shook off her nerves and she came back, not giving an inch as she brought the score back to four all. The next point came straight out of a DC comic book, this was Wonder Woman 2021; Felicia made an insane dive to save a ball but narrowly missed to give the point but damn was it a good effort. Neck and neck, neither budged as the score levelled to nine all. However Raffles managed to hustle back and took the first set with 11-9. Wonder Woman made a return in the second set, with more dives (even one that ended up scraping her knee so badly as she skidded past half the court on her knees but yet she still hustled through the pain) it seemed like Felicia was unstoppable and perhaps it was her never say die attitude that gave her the win in the second set. The 3rd and 4th set eventually went to Raffles to an eventual score of 9-11, 11-9, 5-11 and 8-11.
With their heads held high, this was the end for their IHG journey. They exited the competition with pride as they knew they all had left everything on the court, having no regrets. The spectators welcomed back our warriors with open arms and they did Eusoff extremely proud. It was a fantastic effort by our girls this year and I think their signature emotion this year was calmness, in the face of adversity and even when they were ahead, they never lost their composure. The girls deserve all our love and cheers as they put up a strong battle to each of their opponents and we should all cheer them on in the next IHG as the embers of our dream are yet still burning in the hearts of our players.
Comments