Making a Racket: Two undefeated teams

• Facebook
• Tweet
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• Email

The one I knew going into this girls tennis season in Southwest Washington was that this region was loaded with talent that will likely do very well at the state level.

But the one thing I discovered by attending matches here and there was that I usually saw a match result that I wasn’t expecting. In a good way, mind you (well, maybe not for the losing end).

Case in point is this blog post first featurette on the Ridgefield girls. I knew nothing of this program going into the season and they not only went out an won the 2A Greater St. Helens League team title, but have done it without a loss. (12-0 overall through Wednesday, May 6 13-0 after Friday’s 6-0 win over Hockinson).

They join 4A Skyview (14-0 overall through Wednesday 15-0) as the two unbeaten teams in the area this season. Skyview’s win against Union on Tuesday wrapped up a 10th consecutive 4A GSHL team title, and the Storm completed their undefeated season Friday with a 6-0 win at Mountain View.

(NOTE: Both Skyview and Ridgefield have one more match on Friday, so if anything were to change, this entry will be updated.)

****

Ridgefield senior Camille Jeschke smiles when it’s brought up that her team is undefeated going into the last match of the season on Friday. It’s the smile of a season goal reached.

“We have a good team connection,” Jeschke said referring to how close the players are off the court. “We were ready for the year. We have a ton of juniors and lots of experience that will hopefully take us far.”

Second-year coach Laura Kaufman said the her team was good last spring, and set out to be even better this year. One sign this would be a good team was their results from the R.A. Long tournament in March.

Jeschke said she just began to play singles this season (first time was at the R.A. Long event where she place second in her flight) and has been at No. 1 or No. 2 all season for the Spudders, switching off with Laura Seidel.

On Wednesday at Hudson’s Bay, the Spudders swept the singles with Seidel coming back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1.

“I just had to be confident,” Seidel said of coming back to win. “It was tough losing the first set, but I had the confidence and fought back.”

And yes, she had come back to win matches like this before. “I’m very familiar,” she said.

Results from the match will be in the high school scoreboard in Thursday’s print edition and online.

To give credit where credit is due, here’s the list of Ridgefield players who have appeared in varsity results published in The Columbian this season (and apologizes if anyone is omitted): Camille Jeschke, Laura Seidel, Rena Jones, Sarah Kaufman, Sophie Bird, Kylei Harrison, Emily Persons, Aarica Johnson, Sally Bishop-Smith, Abby Gardner, Sareena Supra, Catherine Roberts.

The 2A sub-district tournament is May 15-16 at Mint Valley in Longview where five singles and five doubles move on to the 2A District 4 tournament at Tumwater to determine the three singles and three doubles teams to state.  State for Class 2A is May 29-30 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on the University of Washington campus.

****

On Tuesday, I visited Skyview as the Storm took on Union. After waiting out a series of rain showers, the match of the match was at No. 1 doubles between host Skyview’s Macy Ballew and Katherine Metz and Union’s Sydney Wallace and Mckenzie Schreiner. You could tell from the first serve these this would be a tough match.

Wallace, part of a 4A state-runner-up double teams last season, and Schreiner topped Ballew and Metz 6-2, 6-1 in a match that played much closer than the final score. And also finished under a rain shower that made the Skyview courts slick for the final few points. Serves were strong, rallies were long, and duces were many in this match between two of the 4A GSHL’s top doubles teams.

Skyview won the team match 4-1 (one match did not finish due to rain) to wrap up its 10th consecutive 4A GSHL title.

Here’s the list of the Skyview players whose names have appeared in results published in The Columbian this season (and apologizes to any omissions): Sammi Hampton, Macy Ballew, Vanessa Vincent, Katherine Metz, Addison Samander, Olivia Coale, Sydney Miles, Karly Metz, Alexis Smith, Sarah Morgan, Amy Schneider, Jamie McMullen.

****

The drawback of this season for the 4A GSHL is that the league gets just two singles and two doubles teams to state. Depending on how coaches want to align their players for district on May 22-23 at Vancouver Tennis Center, the doubles bracket figures be loaded with talent and some deserving teams will be left out of the state tournament. That’s just the reality this season with no bi-district connection.

Skyview’s Sammi Hampton, the three-time state singles champ bound for Arizona State, is abut the only sure thing to state for the 4A GSHL. The rest is going to be a battle.

The 4A state tournament is May 29-30 at Richland.

****

The 3A GSHL league title chase is over as Columbia River has the edge. The 3AGSHL.com website was a bit off kilter as of Wednesday, but I counted Columbia River at 7-1 in league play, and Prairie 6-2. Columbia River owns the head-to-head over Prairie 2-1 just in case there’s a tie, since there are two league matches remaining on Friday: Fort Vancouver (2-6) at Columbia River and Prairie at Kelso (1-7).

The bigger picture going into the postseason is that the 3A GSHL will send three singles and three doubles from the district tournament at Green Meadows, May 15-16, to the 3A West-Central bi-district tournament at the Sprinker Tennis Center on May 22-23. From there five singles and five doubles advance to 3A state, which is May 29-30 at Kennewick.

****

A shout-out to the King’s Way Christian girls tennis team. The Trico season began with Castle Rock coming in after a 14-0 2014 season. From what few Trico tennis results we receive at The Columbian, we did notice that King’s Way beat Castle Rock back in April and then added a 3-2 win over CR on Tuesday. Jasmine Nesbitt has had a solid season at No. 1 singles for the Knights.

****

The WIAA posted this week information on the New Balance High School Tennis Championships, scheduled for July 20-23 at Harvard University in Boston. Any boys or girls tennis player from this school year is eligible to register for the event. Deadline is June 18. More information can be found at www.nbtennisnationalchampionship.com.

Champions earn a wildcard entry into the ITF International Hard Court Championship, Aug. 24-30 at College Park, Md.