Riverside, Langley, Fairfax and Broad Run players earn Va. tennis titles

“We spent a lot of time playing singles and it can get lonely out there sometimes, so it was a lot of fun playing doubles and just having someone there with you,” Hota said. “The atmosphere around you, especially on the tennis court, is a lot more electric.”

Hota and Rajanala faced off against Cox duo Neil Vanga and Sam Dixon, earning a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win that capped their season with another medal.

Despite falling in the team semifinals earlier in the tournament, the Riverside girls got a chance at redemption when senior Maddie Tran and sophomore Mariana Tan Li competed for the doubles title against Kayla Kennedy and Chase London of Great Bridge. After winning the first set, the Rams duo had to fight to keep a mounting comeback at bay.

“Before the match, I was honestly a little scared,” Tran said. “I was going in with low expectations, and I think that made me feel better because I was more free. … But then towards the end of the match they tied it, so we really had to dig deep.”

Tran and Tan Li stopped their opponents’ momentum after winning a key game to retake the lead, finishing with a 6-4, 7-5 win.

Tran returned to the courts on Saturday for the singles finals against Ana Maria Rincon of Patrick Henry and lost in that match, 6-4, 6-3.

In Class 6, Fairfax’s Marianna Pirmatova earned the singles title with a strong 6-1, 6-0 win over Sofia Raval of Battlefield. Defending boys’ singles champion Matthew Staton of Colgan was upset by Deep Run’s Zack Fleishman, 7-5, 6-1.

Days after winning both Class 6 team titles, Langley continued its postseason success with gold medals for sisters Zosia and Arakai Henryson-Gibbs in the doubles finals.

“There’s a lot of nerves and tightness that come with being in a state final with so many people watching,” Henryson-Gibbs said after earning a 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 win. “It wasn’t always pretty tennis, especially in the first set. But then once we were able to understand what we wanted to do and figure out a way to beat them, then we were able to let loose a little bit more.”

The Broad Run girls continued their Class 4 dominance led by Lexi and Izzy Rotaru. The sisters first notched a doubles win together, topping E.C. Glass 6-2, 6-3 on Friday. Then Lexi returned to the court on Saturday for another title, this time by staging a tense comeback against Tovia Carothers of E.C. Glass, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (8-6).