By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Hard work and experience finally paid off for Cheney tennis player David Denenny.
The senior ended the regular season with a 12-1 Great Northern League record, 12-2 overall; a record good enough for a No. 2 seed at last weekend's District 7 tournament where he went 3-1 overall and finished second, advancing to Region 5/6/7 play this Saturday at Washington State University.
Denenny's only loss came to top-seeded Drew Adams in the finals, and his championship run helped propel the Blackhawks to a third place team finish with 21 points, nine points behind Pullman. Clarkston finished first with 52 points.
Getting a bye in the first round Denenny had little trouble with his first opponent in the round of 16, West Valley's Connor Henry. Denenny dispatched him in straight sets, 6-0, 6-1 to advance to quarterfinals action against Pullman's Nikhil Sablani.
In a match that was closer than the score indicated, with many games consisting of long, 30-plus stroke rallies, Denenny proved to be the more consistent, outlasting Sablani 6-2, 6-1. The key for head coach Jesse Erickson was his ability to pull out close games under pressure.
“David's experience in singles paid off because he won all those deuce games,” Erickson said.
Denenny's semifinal match with Pullman's Mitchell Tang was much like his quarterfinal performance, with the Blackhawks senior keeping his focus and capitalizing on his opponents' frustration for a 6-2, 6-3 win. Erickson said Denenny had a big game serving, wheeling off three consecutive aces at one point.
In the finals Denenny struggled with his serving, missing key first attempts that impacted the rest of his game in the 1-6, 0-6 loss to Adams.
“That Adams kid is kind of frustrating to play,” Erickson said. “He doesn't make a lot of errors and he moves you around.”
While Denenny's performance helped the Blackhawks immensely in finishing third, other players stepped up and played well.
Cheney's No. 2 player Eric Barrio overcame some first set anxiousness to grind out a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Clarkston's Aaron Derting, capitalizing on a solid baseline game. The win pitted the junior against Medical Lake's top singles player Blake Andrews, who was more consistent and proved hard to break in downing Bario 2-6, 1-6.
At No. 3 Nathan Mueller, seeing some of his first varsity singles action, played well in his first set with Medical Lake's Andrew Ryan, hitting a high percentage of service winners. But experience and singles endurance probably caught up with him, Erickson said, as passing shots stopped going in en route to the 6-4, 3-6, 3-6 loss.
In doubles play Cheney's No. 1 team, seeded third, of Justin Bockstruck and Paul Kauwe served well and used aggressive net play to down Medical Lake's Brytin Powers and Kegan Ronholt 6-2, 6-4. But in quarterfinals action the pair struggled with their service returns, getting broken several times in losing 4-6, 3-6 to sixth-seeded Alex Ruiz and Alex Farnsworth of West Valley.
Cheney's No. 2 team of Jacob Weisgerber and Alin Walls easily downed East Valley's Justin Smith and Nick Sweeney 6-2, 6-1, but struggled in their round of 16 match with Clarkston's fifth-seeded team of Mitch Carey and Vince Hewett, losing a couple key break points in the second set to fall 0-6, 3-6,
Finally, the Blackhawks No. 3 team of Cannon Dickson and David Vredevelt played well to beat Deer Park's Matt O'Brien and Greg Sherman 6-2, 6-2, but ran into the future district champions in the second match, second-seeded Jordan Jones and Ryan Adams, losing 1-6, 0-6.
Erickson had high praise for his players, many who competed at the varsity level for the first time this season. Those players showed their improvement last weekend in leading Cheney to third.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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