Skyview Tennis more than just three players at state
Note: Meant to post this last week when the All-Region teams were released. Apologize for the delay.
Sammi Hampton is awesome. You know it. We know it. Everybody associated with high school tennis in the state of Washington knows it.
Macy Ballew and Kristina Metz also made names for themselves at the Class 4A state tennis championships last month.
The three of them — Hampton as a singles champion and Ballew and Metz finishing fourth in the doubles competition — gave the Storm the state tennis team title. That’s the first team title for the program.
This post, though, is a shout-out to the rest of the team. There are 12 members on the varsity tennis squad, and while the other nine did not score any points at state, they had a big part of the championship.
“I feel proud to be part of the school that won state,” senior Rayna Mathis said. “It’s our legacy.”
It was the entire team practicing every day throughout the season.
In matches, when one player’s match was over, that player would support her teammates on another court.
“I like hearing, ‘You got this!’ It motivates you,” senior Melis Gurocak said.
Mathis and Gurocak said the team would look back after every match and figure out what to work on in practice.
“We’d drill together, like it was a match, as a team, and get us prepared for the real matches,” Gurocak said. “If we noticed we were struggling in an area, we’d tell the coaches and ask if we could work on a particular drill.”
They also never left early.
“We stayed until everybody was finished,” Mathis said.
Sounds like a team title to me.
Ladies and gentleman, your 2013 Class 4A state girls tennis team champions:
Macy Ballew
Olivia Coale
Melis Gurocak
Sammi Hampton
Rayna Mathis
Katherine Metz
Kristina Metz
Sydney Miles
Addison Samander
Madyson Schuh
Darby Tinker
Vanessa Vincent
