Written By: Rika Ogawa Edited By: Valerie Chua & Jolene Wong Photographs By: Eusoffworks
It was the finals of the Table Tennis Inter-Hall games. Despite the late game the previous night, the players started warming up as early as 8 am. Before the match began, their spirits were high and they were all excited and ready to go. For the girls, they were up against Kent Ridge Hall (KR) and for the guys they were up against Temasek Hall (TH). Both the teams needed to win to secure crucial points for Eusoff Hall. Before the match, the players mentioned that their lineup was the key to the success or failure today.
First up we had Celeste to start of the first singles for the girls. Even though the line-up was once again not in Eusoff favour, Celeste fought hard for Eusoff. In the first set, Celeste started off the match strong leading 4-3. However, after some long rallies, the score was 9-10 to KR and Celeste fought even harder to catch up with her opponent. She bided her time and attacked whenever there was opportunity. Eventually, she caught up to deuce at 12-12. The game went on and deuced several times with Celeste and her opponents taking turns to win the match point. The tie was only broken when her opponent won two points at 16-14 when she forced Celeste into making errors. In the second game Celeste fought hard but unfortunately went down as well.
It was in the third game where she started to gain momentum, and both Celeste and her opponent started long and intense rallies. She eventually broke a tie at 8-8 to win the third set 11-8. However, in the last set despite some pretty intense smashes put in by Celeste, her opponent came out and won 11-8.
Veteran Celeste was all focused while serving the ball.
The second doubles was played by the SMASHING pair Xuan Rui and Sandra. They knew how important their game was and they were determined to put up their best performance. In the first set, they were lagging slightly but they fought hard even when they were 7-9 down. However, they eventually lost 12-10. In the second set, despite calmly biding their time to attack, they were down 11-8. However, Sandra and Xuan Rui were determined to remind everyone exactly how they got their names as BALL MONSTER and BALL SMASHERS. They attacked with a ferociousness that shocked their opponent. It was a pretty insane come back as they won the third set 11-6.
They then continued their streak with a 11-9 win in the fourth set to bring themselves into the last set. In the last set, they displayed their usual brilliance. However, a time out by Kent Ridge and a last minute switch of tactic by Kent Ridge stunned them and KR capitalized on this to win the last set 11-6.
The duo showing some good chemistry with Sandra (#99) receiving the ball while Xuan Rui (#97) looking on.
Next up, we had Wang Nuo as the third singles. Wang Nuo clearly knew her role and responsibilities.
As she had previously, she rose up to the occasion with her causal calm but not so calm shots. She played the first set so well all the spectators were wonder HOW DID SHE HIT THAT SO CASUALLY??? She won the first set in record time 11-1. The second and third set went on pretty much similar with her serving and smashing at 80km/h and her opponent being unable to receive the balls. At times there were some good rallies but in general she proved her worth by winning the next two sets 11-4, 11-4.
Then, it was Captain Elaine and Jolyne-jojoalpaca turn to shine. They knew exactly what their role was, and they knew they had to win to keep Eusoff hopes of getting champion alive. The game began and Jolyne did some smashes that were so amazing she had to take time to appreciate it herself. The doubles pair displayed good team work and communication as they took the first two sets with a win of 11-8, 11-6 with some hard-fought rallies. In particular, they worked together to put the KR doubles pair out of position until they could execute a smash on the high ball.
Smiley Jolyne & Captain Elaine showing some sikkkkkkkkkk chemistry and skills!
However, the Kent Ridge pair was not going to go down without a fight. Eusoff lost the third and fourth set respectively as the Kent Ridge girls were determined to put on a strong come back. However, our pair showed the spectators the true definition of the Eusoffian spirit. Despite being exhausted, they pushed on. In the last and final set, they continued their rallies and made some good saves on the opponent’s smashes. Finally, they won the game 11-7 with loud cheers from the crowd. GOOD JOB GALS.
In the last and final game, which was also the decider for the girls’ match, we had Chloe the superstar from the day before. To recap, Chloe won the deciding match the night before to ensure that Eusoff Hall progressed into the finals. This IHG must be her time to shine as she seemed to play the decider every match.
Table Tennis sensation serving the ball.
She knew the responsibility on her shoulders and even though she was nervous, she gave it her best shot. Chloe had a slightly slow start but eventually fought back till it was 9-10 before narrowly losing to her opponent 11-9 in the first set. Moving on to the second set, Chloe tried her best to slow down the pace of the game and minimise her errors. However, the match was slightly against her as she lost the next two sets 11-5, 11-8 despite putting up valiant fight. Nevertheless, everyone was proud of her efforts and cheered loudly for her after the end of her match.
With that, the game ended 3-2 to KR as Eusoff emerged as runner’s up! Even though the line up was not in their favour, the spectators were still proud of how hard the girls fought! Come back to support them again next year! Good job gals!
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