In the midst of a new tennis season with changed formats, Kennedy Catholic captured a 7-0 Seamount League boys tennis triumph at the heat-absorbed courts of Highline High School on Wednesday, September 5.
After several decades of having boys and girls compete together in spring, league athletic directors decided to stage the boys season in the fall with the girls competing in the spring. Team match ups will now feature four singles encounters and three doubles matches.
At this date, teams are struggling to get players eligible with enough practices while a significant number of schools do not have the numbers to field junior varsity teams.
When the eligibility issues are cleared the Lancers will field a formidable squad with virtually their entire squad intact from last spring.
"We'll have strong boys team," said JFK head coach Maryann Thorp. "Most of last season's team is back."
Waiting in the wings for Lancer eligibility are Jamie Thorp (two-time Class 3A state doubles champion with now-graduated brother Mitch), Vincent Viloria (state 3A singles qualifier) and veteran Sam Harrison.
Highline looks forward to the eligibility of foreign exchange student David Villegas Prados from Spain and solid returner Justin Vu.
"David is a very experienced player," said HHS head coach Scott Babcock. "Justin is in the Running Start program and working, now. He'll be eligible for post season, but it it'll be tricky."
Good, competitive matches headed the bill for on court action.
Kennedy Catholic's Brandon Lowry did all he could to move Justin Kemp around the court with ground strokes before emerging with a No. 2 singles 6-2, 6-3, win. Kemp's ability to reach many shots kept him in the battle.
Last season's state Class 3A singles qualifier Taas Sribhibhadh stroked to a Lancer No. 1 singles 6-3, 6-2, win against a strongly competing Aaron Lyons.
"I improved my forehand during the summer and got my serve better," he said. "I haven't been practicing a lot recently and just played in a relaxed way since this was my first match back. Having tennis now got me back to practicing sooner. It was fun."
In No. 4 singles, speedy Terence Chen held off hard-charging Pirate Quang Lam, 6-4, 7-5. Lam trailed 4-1 in the second set before closing within 6-5.
Alex Mackenzie of John F. Kennedy and sophomore Navath Nhan of Highline then squared off in the longest match of the day.
Relying upon finesses, the duo fought through three sets before a verdict was reached.
Nhan earned the first set in 7-6 (7-3) ahead of Mackenzie's 6-2 second set comeback victory, thus setting up a tension filled super tie-breaker third set. Mackenzie finally eked out a 12-10 set victory.
"The first set tie-breaker came down to who was strong with fundamentals," stated Nhan. "He was strong at putting the ball in play while I was going cross court and cutting the ball. The third set could have gone either way."
Tharm Sribhibhadh and Connor McKinney quickly closed out the Pirate tandem of Austin Allen and Brandon Terlow, 6-0, 6-2, in No. 1 doubles.
Andrew Quackenbush and Colin Fenn won No. 3 doubles by default while Tom Wang and Chris Dwyer also took a default in No. 3 doubles for the Kennedy Catholic final match victories.
