AUBURN - Stimulating efforts Saturday, May 12, at Auburn-Riverside High School kept Alexis Gregerson in the hunt for a Class 4A state tennis position.
Exerting an excellent effort, Mount Rainier senior Alexis Gregerson came excruciatingly close to victory before dropping a 6-4, 6-4, Class 4A West Central District girls singles tennis opening round of 16 tiff to Maddie Turek of Tahoma.
Gregerson was forced into a loser-out afternoon match against teammate Jelena Stevanovic, who had to default her morning match due to International Baccalaureate testing.
Hitting passing shots and returns deep to the baseline, the Ram athlete played well in opening set action. Her opponent added to her own spin serves with some slicing returns and drop shots to gain control.
Unable to break serve against her multi-dimensional opponent, Gregerson dropped the long rallying set after being broken for serve once. On the other hand, SPSL All-League selection Gregerson was unable to break SPSL All-League Turek's service game.
In the second set, the hard working Mount Rainier tennis player found herself trailing 4-3 with the Bear player on serve.
Marshaling up strong and angled shots mixed in with net approaches, Gregerson finally broke serve only to be immediately broken back. Mount Tahoma's Turek then held serve for game set and match.
Other than losing for the third time this season to Turek, the MR senior was pleased with her showing.
"This is the best I've played against her (after two losses in the South Puget Sound regular season)," Gregerson stated. "I got to every ball and hit shots high on the court. Normally, she is a powerful and consistent player with down the line and angle shots besides her spin serve. I was playing more aggressively and surprised her by being aggressive and going to the net more. The rallies were longer because the warm weather softened the surface and slowed down the (pace on) the ball. She finally got her rhythm and started coming to the net for drop shots. My focus was a little in and out because I woke up a little sick this morning. Once I started hitting balls, it was better."
Gregerson patiently pulled her game together to outlast Stevanovic, 6-4, 7-5, in the early afternoon. Long rallies punctuated the performances.
With momentum in her corner, Gregerson then pounded out a 6-3, 6-1, decision against No.4 Narrows seed Alli Bautista of Olympia to qualify for the district consolation semifinals against No. 4 Narrows seed Gemma Robinson, also representing the Olympia Bears.
The winner of this 11:30 a.m. match up at Auburn-Riverside qualifies for state.
While Gregerson and Stevanovic were battling at ARHS, senior boys player Will Desmond was competing in Class 4A WCD action at Game Farm Park.
Ryan Anderson of Gig Harbor sent Desmond into the consolation round with a hard fought 7-5, 6-2, defeat of the Ram singles player.
Desmond then was eliminated 6-3, 0-6, 6-2, by Tanner Blake of Union in the afternoon. Desmond resiliently rebounded for the whitewash in the second set, but was unable to sustain the tide in the third set.
