The Peglegs Looking to Make Comeback

With an aggressive return, junior and co-captain Allison Eng ended her third round against her opponent from Tottenville High School. It was the girls’ varsity table tennis team’s first match since losing to Millennium High School.

The Peglegs ended up winning 4-1 against Tottenville High School in spite of a loss during first doubles. In singles matches, all three starters, junior and co-captain Katherine Lee, Eng, and sophomore Kasey Chan, had a rocky start, maintaining a marginal lead in their first respective games. However, in the following rounds after they’d warmed up, it became clear that nerves were responsible for their initial slip up. Instead of leading by only four points, it was by up to eight points for all three players. Lee, Eng, and Chan all won decisively, three games to none. In doubles, despite the Peglegs’ best efforts, they lost one out of their two matches, partly due to the fact that one of their starters was absent that day. “Some matches were a breeze but parts of our team need to do better in terms of giving away less points due to simple mistakes,” Eng said.

The team was recovering from a loss before winter break to Millennium High School, the current reigning champion of the Division I League. It was their second time being beat 5-0, so team spirit was at an all-time low. Their record after their game against Tottenville is 8-2, and they are currently second place in their League.

A player’s attitude and mindset going into a game is often the determining factor when the teams are evenly matched and just as important even if they aren’t. Coach Eric Wisotsky believes that the reason for their defeat stems from a lack of self-confidence and team morale. “The girls tend to get nervous even though they’re good enough to beat them. Skill-wise, they’re at the same level,” Wisotsky said. A look at game statistics of the Peglegs and Millennium match shows that the teams were fairly on par with each other with Eng losing 3-2 and a doubles duo of freshman Alyssa Yoo and Divya Chanani also losing 3-2.

Other than Millennium, no team so far this season has been able to seriously contend with the Peglegs for a spot in playoffs. “We still hope to make it far into the season into semifinals, and hopefully top 4, like last year. [It] hasn’t been as bad as we thought it would be without the seniors,” Eng said. The captains have worked hard thus far to maintain a similar record to that of last year’s despite the enormous gap the seniors of last year have left.

The team is looking to build themselves up again, so that even if they aren’t victorious this season, they will be next year. With the amount of sheer potential in the majority underclassmen and continuous drilling, the Peglegs hope to become an even more formidable force in PSAL and restore their title as champions. Especially now that the players have access to more newly purchased tables, bought in order for Stuyvesant to host the City Championships, they’ll be able to practice more. “While we might not beat Millennium this year because it requires multiple team members getting better in little time, our team [still] has years to improve,” Eng said.