The Medical Lake girls’ tennis team will carry a 7-1 Northeast A League record and a shared championship with Chewelah into district competition beginning Friday and continuing Saturday at Mead High School.
The Cardinals finished the regular season April 30 with a 4-1 victory at Lakeside in which they swept through three singles matches.
Katie Larkin rallied to defeat Marisa Fischer 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in No. 1 singles, Rachel Hansen swept past Allie McCann 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 and Becky Nix did the same, 6-2, 6-2 over Kasey Irving.
“Rachel had split sets with her just a couple of weeks ago with two tie-breakers, so this was a much improved match,” Cardinals’ head coach Dawn Eliassen said of the battle at No. 2.
The No. 3 match was a clash of playing styles, Eliassen said. “Becky showed lots of patience in the first set and then did a terrific job of mixing up her shot selection in the second set.”
Amy Ryan and Annette Carlson lost to Cassidy Coit and Megan Hord 6-1, 5-7, 5-7 in No. 1 doubles but Lewan and Katelynn Houger used a super tiebreaker for the third set in scoring a 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 win.
The Cardinals have the No. 3 and 5 seeds in singles play in Larkin and Hansen plus No. 3 and 4 in doubles in district play with Ryan and Carlson and Lewan and Houger.
Should she win her opening match, Larkin would eventually meet No. 2 seed, Sydney Spray from RIverside, in the semis. Hansen is facing Marisa Fischer from Lakeside in her first match.
Ryan and Carlson have a first-round doubles match against the same Lakeside team they just lost to in three sets. Lewan and Houger are matched up against Freeman in their first round and should they prevail would eventually run into the No. 1 seed from Chewelah in the semis.
The tournament starts at 3 p.m. Friday with semis and finals being played Saturday starting at 10 a.m.
Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].
Reader Comments(0)