By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
The Cheney boys and girls tennis teams wrapped up their 2010 season at district competition last Friday and Saturday in Pullman, both coming home with fifth-place finishes overall. The boys notched 11 points to finish above Medical Lake and Riverside, one point back of West Valley while the girls scored four points to tie the Cardinals for fifth, both finishing ahead of Deer Park and Riverside.
Cheney's doubles teams fueled the Blackhawks finishes and chief among those was the boys' pair of Tanner Tait and Paul Kauwe. Seeded fourth overall, Tait and Kauwe opened with an easy 6-0, 6-1 win over Deer Park's Dayne Burell and Keith Olaf-Sherman, capping that with a 6-1, 6-3 win over fifth-seeded Tony Wang and Jackie Wu Pullman.
The wins advanced the Blackhawks duo to Saturday action where they faced top-seeded Derek Young and Nick Van Cleave of Clarkston, falling 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals to the eventual District 7 champions. Needing one win to advance to state, Tait and Kauwe lost a hard fought match to second-seeded Sam Schad and Nishant Dwivedi of Pullman, 5-7, 3-6, in the match for the third and final seed to state.
“Fourth place wasn't quite what they wanted, but it was still a good performance,” Cheney boys' head coach Jesse Erickson said.
Cheney's No. 2 team of David Denenny and James Higuera, seeded seventh, enjoyed first round success by downing 10th seed Kimon Letzner and Cody Chambers of Deer Park 6-0, 7-6 (7-4) before falling in the quarterfinals to Pullman's Schad and Dwivedi 3-6, 6-4, 3-6. Erickson said it was the best doubles the pair had played all season.
“To play their best at districts was definitely what you want,” he added.
For the girls it was Michelle Passey and Melissa Jamison. Seeded eighth, Passey and Jamison downed ninth-seed Athea Ulberg and Madison Cherry 6-3, 6-1, setting up a quarterfinals match with top-seeded Katie Servatius and Katie Van Cleave. The Bantams duo proved too much for the Blackhawks duo, downing Passey and Jamison 0-6, 4-6 en route to their second-place finish and No. 2 seed to state.
“Michelle Passey probably played the best doubles match of her high school career with Melissa Jamison in their loss against the number 1 seed from Clarkston, known simply as The Katies,” Cheney girls head coach Corey Anderson said via e-mail. “The score doesn't show how close that match was…almost every game went to deuce.”
Also competing in girls' doubles for Cheney was Michelle Celone and Jessica Ziemann. The duo were seeded sixth, but were upset in the first round by a tough Medical Lake team of Nissa VanMeter and Kylie Tareski, 2-6, 2-6.
In boys singles action, Justin Bockstruck, seeded seventh, lost to 11th seed Brett Nielson of West Valley 1-6, 6-7 (1-7) while 12th-seeded Zac Malik fell 2-6, 2-6 to fifth seed Erica Sager of Riverside. The pair played one consolation round match each, using pro sets with Bockstruck downing Medical Lake's Austin Schoonover 8-5 and Malik losing a close match to the Cards' Caleb Ruble 8-9 (5-7).
For the girls, 12th seeded senior Alyssa Bray lost 0-6, 1-6 to fifth seed Kayla Moorman of Deer Park while 15th seed Alla Chekulayeva lost 0-6, 2-6 to second seed and eventual No. 2 seed to state Kailey Fox of Colville.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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