Out & About: South/Edison

#2 posting 4.26.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH tigers 6
MINNEAPOLIS EDISON tommies 1

South jumbled up the Mpls City race with a convincing 6-1 win at Edison. It was South's second win over Edison this year. Earlier the Tigers won 4-3 at South. Both teams are 7-3, but South would have the tiebreaker with both wins. Henry is at 6-2.

South swept the singles, but need three games at 2, 3, and 4. South's 4th, Jessica Jolson had to win games two and three for the win at that positon. Edison's only win came at first doubles with the pair of Julie Lor and Panhia Xiong winnng in two.

FIRST SINGLES
Edison's Chu Mai Thao started off three straight points capped with an ace. There were a couple of lead changes with Thao going up 9-6 after another three service points. South's Bee Xiong slipped ahead at 11-10, but a missed serve tied it at 11. The next 14 serves went back and forth as both players looked for any sort of run. On Xiong's 12th serve she broke free with three points, all on Thao hitting errors to win 21-17. It should be mentioned that Xiong had 6 serving errors in the first game preventing any runs.

The side out game was working again with six straight serves changing hands. Xiong broke free with points off her 4th, 5th and 6th serves. Xiong ran up the biggest total on her sixth serve with four straight points. That put her in the drivers seat 13-7. Thao closed to 14-11. Xiong extended her lead out to 17-12. Then Xiong was held scoreless the rest of the game with her next four serves. But her margin gave her the cushion she needed to withstand the Thao run. Thao, on her last four serves only squeezed two points. On two of her serves Thao cut her own throat with missed serves. The game ended with a Xiong smash for a 21-18 win.

SIDEOUTS:
Xiong 18/24 .750; Thao 15/24 .625
SERVE RUNS:
Xiong 2 (longest 4), Thao 2 (3)
POINTS:
Xiong 42. Winners 21: Drop 6, Clear 6, Smashes 4, Drives 4 (2 soft), Ace 1
Thao Errors 21: hitting 16 (wide 6, net 6, deep 4); serving 5 (wide 3, short 1, net 1).
Thao 35: Winners 13: Smashes 5, Drops 3, Aces 2, Drive 2 (2 soft), Clears 1
Xiong Errors 22: hitting 14 (Net 5, Wide 5, Deep 4), serving 8 (Deep 4, Wide 4)

SECOND SINGLES
I caught the third game in this series. Edison's See Vang led early at 3-0 and continued with her lead scoring points on 5 of her first 8 serves while holding South's Ma Xiong was held scoreless for four straight serves. Vang led 16-11. Xiong got the side out with a hitting error. Xiong had five straight service points with three coming on hitting errrors. That put Xiong up 17-16. Another rotation and she was up 19-17. Vang used a smash to get the bird back and then scored two straight points to go on the verge 20-19. Xiong held her off with a clear to tie it at 20. Xiong then kept the bird and used a clear for the win 22-20.

FOURTH SINGLES
I then moved over to the fourth singles in the middle of their third game. I picked up the action at 5-4 in favor of South's Jessica Jolson. Edison's Kia Vue got three points in a row to edge ahead 6-5. Jolson then went on a 9-2 run to go up 14-8. Jolson maintained that lead throughout the rest of the match. From my count of Jolson's 16 points, 11 came from Vue errors. Vue had 12 points in my viewing, 7 from Jolson errors.

SINGLES
1. Bee Xiong (S) def Chu Mai Thao 21-18, 21-18
2. Ma Xiong (S) def See Vang 21-8, 16-21, 22-20
3. CeCe Durney (S) def Kalia Thao 21-15, 18-21, 21-12
4. Jessica Jolson (S) def Kia Vue 22-24, 21-19, 21-15
DOUBLES
1. Julie Lor/PaNhia Xiong (E) def Katherine McQuarter/Rachel Mammen 21-13, 21-3
2. Melissa Ng/Jackie Heslop (S) def Karrie Lee/Ly Vang 22-20, 21-11
3. Misha Hemmingson/Hannah Heigl (S) def. Ala Xiong/Brenda Vue 21-13, 21-16

BY THE NUMBERS
SINGLES
Matches: South 4-0 1.000
Games: South 8-3 .727
Points: South 225-191 .541
decided by 10+: South 1-0
decided by 3 or less: South 4-2 .667
DOUBLES
matches: South 2-1 .667
games: South 4-2 .667
points: Edison 102-101 .502
decided by 10+: South 1-0
decided by 3: 1-1
It is interesting that Edison edged South in total points in the doubles side of things.

next up: tomorrow morning