Making a Racket: Titans on top
Union sophomore Alex Calpagiu, 2015 season. (Jeff Klein/The Columbian)
The team at the top of the 4A Greater St. Helens boys tennis heap after Friday wasn’t defending champ Mountain View, or Camas, or Skyview.
At the top of the mountain after two weeks of league play is (drumroll) … Union with a 5-0 record.
The Titans capped their week on Friday with a 5-1 win over Skyview to hand the only other undefeated league team its first loss.
The big win came on Wednesday, Sept. 23 against Mountain View. And you needed to know some math to get the win.
The match score ended 3-3. First tiebreaker of total sets won was 6-6. The second tiebreaker of total games won was 55-54 for Union. Can’t get much closer than that.
Union junior Bjorn Morfin, 2015 season. (Jeff Klein/The Columbian)
Union junior Andrew Chanthavong, 2015 season. (Jeff Klein/The Columbian)
The difference? Take the No. 2 doubles match. Union’s Quinn Lamey and Peter Pronwam beat Mountain View’s Loc Ngo and Josh Kim 6-0, 6-1. It was the only match of the six played where any team had a 6-0 set that day. Or even take the No. 1 doubles match where Union’s Bjorn Morfin and Andrew Chanthavong defeated Mountain View’s Nick Shiraishi and Algrid Zalpys — a top duo in the GSHL — 6-2, 6-4.
Coach David Heitsch said Alex Calpagui, despite losing, getting three games off Mountain View No. 1 Colton Reed was big in the final tally.
The last match to finsh was No. 3 doubles Connor Burbank and Kevin Nishi, who lost 6-2, 6-2, but it was those two in the last set that may have done it. Heitsch said Burbank and Nishi were down 4-0 and Union just needed two games. And they got it.
Oh, and Union did it again on Monday at Camas, winning a tiebreaker 55-50 in total games won. That’s 6-0 in the 4A GSHL for the Titans. And still the only unbeaten team in league.
—-
Rain delays can mean everything in tennis.
In Friday’s No. 1 singles match between Camas freshman Spencer Kang and Columbia River senior Owen Carlson, the two player split sets and were tied 1-1 in the third.
There was a bit of a rain delay during the match and Carlson had to eventually get to the airport for flight that night.
End result was Carlson had to make the decision to default the match to Kang, tied in the third. Too bad really, as you had one of the up-and-coming top talents against one of the top players in the area playing his final season. And they aren’t scheduled to meet again as this was a non-league match.
But we all understand having to a catch a flight. Some schedules can’t be canceled.
—-
Mountain View finished second to Olympia in its Thunder Invitational on Saturday. Individual champions for the Thunder included Sam So in Flight 2 singles, Justin Yee and Algird Zalpys in Flight 2 doubles, and Josh Kim and Loc Ngo in Flight 3 doubles.
Ryan Adams of Olympia, who placed seventh at state last spring, won the Flight 1 singles.
—-
For the alumni corner, 2015 Camas grad Jenn Lewis played her first collegiate matches over the weekend for Eastern Washington at the Jack Taylor Classic at Boise State.
Lewis’ first collegiate victory came in “pick-up” matches over Big Sky opponent Megan Rindlsbacher of Weber State 7-5, 3-6, (10-2). On the weekend Lewis was 0-2 in singles bracket play, 1-1 in pick-up matches, and 0-2 in doubles. Her bracket singles scores were competitive as would be expected from a two-time state high school champion. (Click here to see the results.)
