Cardinal girls tennis face daunting season closer

The Medical Lake girls tennis team notched another win putting the team in fifth place in the Northeast A League at 3-6 and 3-7 overall.

The Cards beat Riverside (1-8, 1-8) on the road Tuesday, April 23, on the backs of the doubles teams, who had decisive wins.

Stasia Hurt-Moran and Trinity Caputo shut out their Rams opponents 6-0, 6-0, while Lina Terporten and Nicole Ehr went 6-0, 6-2. Grace Remendowski and Emily Zunker also won their two matches 6-2, 7-6.

“Our doubles teams all played really strong for this match,” head coach Dawn Eliassen said in an email. “It’s been fun to watch them play with more confidence as they’ve earned a few wins in the last couple of weeks.”

In singles play, Sarah Ransom lost 1-6, 2-6, as did Riley Olmstead 2-6, 3-6.

The team traveled to Deer Park two days later on Thursday, April 25, where the doubles teams again did well — but not well enough for a team victory.

Remendowski and Zunker earned a comeback win in three sets. After losing the first set 4-6, the pair came back to beat their Stag opponents 6-3, 6-3 in a focused comeback effort.

Coach Brian Tellez was effusive about their performance, noting how they were able to “reset their mental game after losing the first set.”

“They started fresh in the second set, applied some strategy that they learned in practice from the day before and took the win,” Tellez said.

The doubles pair of Allison Davis and Suzana Gavrilyuk, brought up from the JV team, fought a tough first set, winning 7-6, then returned in a decisive 6-2 win in the second set. They really stepped up at the varsity level, Eliassen said.

In other doubles action against the Stags, Terporten and Trinity Caputo lost in two sets 4-6, 2-6.

In singles play, Ransom lost 1-6, 1-6 against a player she had lost to the previous week. But Eliassen felt Ransom played better this time around, she said.

“She’s gaining confidence in singles and adding to her game each match,” Eliassen said.

Olmstead lost her singles match 1-6, 2-6.

The Card girls’ tennis crew is looking ahead to a tough regular season close.

“We were really working for the team win to be 4-5 to move us into fourth place,” Eliassen said.

As of press time their schedule had Medical Lake facing undefeated Lakeside (7-0, 8-0) today (May 2) on the home courts, then traveling the next day to face second place Colville (7-2, 7-3), whose only losses, Eliassen noted, have been against Lakeside.

Lee Hughes can be reached at [email protected].

 

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