Pappas Reaches State Finals

by Stephen F. Ball

Originally published at 12:13 a.m., June 5, 2009
Updated at 8:29 a.m., June 6, 2009

In the Virginia AAA girls' singles state semifinals, Marshall freshman Faby Chaillo continued her dominance. Chaillo swept Atlee's Yasmin Fotovat, 6-2, 6-0, to advance to the championship match on Saturday.

"I just tried to come out and be aggressive and use my mental toughness to my advantage," Chaillo said. "She was a really good player. I was very happy to win."

It took Kiersten Pappas three sets to dispatch of top-ranked Emily Hahn from Douglas Freeman. The All-Met senior from Loudoun Valley overcame a stomach virus to defeat Hahn, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Pappas will meet Chaillo in the final on Saturday morning, and the two are not exactly strangers on the court.

"We played each other once before, she's such a tough player," Pappas said of their previous meeting in a USTA junior event. "I don't remember the score, but she beat me. I'll just have to use that experience to my advantage tomorrow."

On Thursday, Loudoun Valley’s Kiersten Pappas advanced to the Virginia AAA semifinals for singles, defeating Westfield’s Yillian Zhang, 6-2, 6-3, at the Fairfax Raquet Club, which hosted the state tournament after rain forced the action indoors. Battling illness prior to the match, Pappas decided against warming up prior to the match, choosing instead to save her energy. The decision proved wise against Zhang, the 2007 state champion known for her powerful ground strokes. Instead of attempting to match Zhang’s power, Pappas aimed to keep the ball in play, extending the point as long as possible. For Pappas, it was her first head-to-head victory over Zhang.

“The thing about Yillian is that she’s not very patient,” Westfield coach Steve Lombard said afterwards. “She likes to finish points quickly and when that doesn’t happen, things don’t seem to go well for her. Kiersten played a really smart match and got the monkey off her back.”

Pappas will advance to face Douglas Freeman’s Emily Hahn.

In doubles play, Pappas teamed up with Julianna Jacangelo to win in three sets to advance to state semifinals in that draw.

In other tennis matches involving locals on Thursday, Freedom's Carla Wong lost, 6-0, 6-3, to Hidden Valley's Kristin Harter in the Virginia AA singles semifinals at Radford University. Harter later went on to win the singles state title, knocking off Stuarts Draft's Jessica Miller, 6-3, 6-3.

Extra Points

By Paul Tenorio and Matt Brooks