Friday, October 9, 2009

By Rich Barton
NJS.com Staff Writer

Malisa Vibulhan won the final three games of the second set at third singles to clinch Rutherford's first ever trip to the section semis with a 3-2 win over County Prep.

JERSEY CITY – By the reaction of her teammates when she walked off the court on Thursday, Rutherford’s Malisa Vibulhan should have been more aware of what was at stake in her third singles match against County Prep, especially since it is something she experienced last week in the Lady Bulldogs’ first-round state tournament win over Parsippany when her victory closed out the match, the first the program’s history. Rutherford scored another first yesterday, and again it was Vibulhan who notched the winning point.

With County Prep and Rutherford splitting both first and second singles and first and second doubles, the entire North 2, Group 2 quarterfinal match came down to third singles. Faced with the prospect of going to a third and deciding set for all the marbles, Vibulhan won the final three games the second set for a 6-3, 7-5 win that gave the eighth-seeded Bulldogs a 3-2 upset over top-seeded and previously undefeated County Prep at Lincoln Park.

As they have all season, County Prep quickly scored the first point behind one of the state’s top first-singles players, Angelika Dabu. Her whole arsenal was on display as she did not drop a game against Ji Yeon Park.

County Prep's Angelika Dabu won without dropping a game at first singles.

The Hurricanes’ second doubles team of Jade Whyatt and Summer Bernales followed suit. Tied at 4-4 in the second set with Rutherford’s Nicole Kim and Maica Perez, Whyatt and Bernales minimized their mistakes and won eight out of the last nine games for a 6-4, 6-1 win that put County Prep, which won the North 2, Group 1 title last year, one match away from victory. That third point proved to be elusive as the Rutherford players kept their approach simple and focused on just keeping the ball in play.

Grace Na broke in the 11th game of the first set and broke again early in the second to get the Bulldogs on the board with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Agnes Bangayan at second singles.

After losing the first set, the Bulldogs’ first-doubles duo of Emily Murawa and Claudia Veres were more aggressive at the net and it proved dividends, especially late in the third set. They snapped a 3-3 tie with County Prep’s Cece Rosado and Horita Patel with consecutive volleys to break in the seveth game for a 4-3 lead. Murawa held serve and the Bulldogs broke again to even the match at 2.

“That first doubles match was back and forth the whole way,” said County Prep head coach Gunther Pelipada. “It was actually more important to hold serve than it was to break serve in that match. There were a couple of swing matches and it could have gone either way. We gave it our best, they were just more consistent than we were in the matches they won and it just didn’t go our way today.”

Claudia Veras was half of Rutherford's winning team at first doubles.

After winning the final three games to take the first set, Vibulhan found herself down a break at 5-4 to County Prep’s Stephanie Malabag. She was also facing potentially losing momentum and having the entire match come down to one set. With that in mind, her only thought was to focus point-by-point and fight her way back.

“She hit harder than I did, so I kept telling myself to keep the ball in the court,” said Vibulhan. “I’m so proud of how well my team played today and I didn’t want to let them down. I didn’t feel any pressure because I had nothing to lose, so I just kept on playing the best that I could.”

Vibulhan broke in the 10th game, then held serve for a 6-5 lead. At 40-30 in the 12th game, Malabag’s return of a Vibulhan backhand slice went long. That gave Rutherford the upset win over County Prep (12-1) and the Bulldogs advanced to the North 2, Group 2 section semifinals for the first time in school history.

They will try to keep their record-setting run going and get a little revenge in the process on Saturday when they travel to face fifth-seeded West Essex, which has knocked them out of the states in each of the last two years.

“I’m proud of the girls for playing the way we knew that we could,” said Rutherford head coach Dave Padilla. “(County Prep) is a good team and they have big-match experience. We just took them as another team and treated this as another match that we were going to fight hard to win. Everyone kept it simple and stepped up during the big points. (Malisa) came through for us again at third singles and pulled out a win for us. Our team has already reached our goals for the season with the win last week. This one is just icing on the cake.”

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