Foster High School's Ana Rios captured second place at the 2A girls state tennis championship singles tournament held at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on the University of Washington campus on Sat., May 26.
Rios dropped a 6-3, 6-1 championship match to three-time defending champion Danya Wallis of North Kitsap.
The Bulldog made her Viking opponent struggle hard at times with booming returns.
With the score tied at three-all in the first set, Rios was in solid contention, but Wallis used slicing shots to move the Foster player around the court and induce net returns or out of bounds shots on the way to a 6-3 set win.
Unable to set up for successful hard returns, Rios fell back in the third set. Wallis defeated Rios 6-2, 6-2, in the finals of West Central District as part of the Bulldog ace's only losses this season.
In the first round, Rios opened with a 6-0, 6-1, defeat of Kerington Tenwick of Clarkston before following up the win in a 6-3, 6-1, control of Annie Hoang of Mountlake Terrace.
The Foster athlete downed Marissa Nemeth of Olympic, 6-1, 6-2 to reach the championship match against Wallis.
Highline High School was well represented by the doubles team of Stella Fosberg and Chloe Watson.
Maya Becerra and Anna Marie Rutherford of Sedro-Wooley ended the Pirate pair’s run for.a top eight finish by defeating HHS 6-2, 6-4.
The Pirate tandem opened state play with a 6-3, 6-0 loss against Washougal’s Rebecca Boulanger and Beyoncé Abe’s and then dispatched Pullman’s Jacque McAleer and Lucy Gao 7-5, 6-3 to reach the consolation semifinals.
In 4A tournament action at the Columbia Basin Racquet Club and Hanford High School, Auburn Riverside’s Calley Heilbronn and Anna Maravich defeated Lily Olson and Lauren Jergens of Kennedy Catholic 6-1, 6-4 in the third/sixth place match up.
Olson and Jergens started by winning against Angela Lee and Haley Gilbert of Kamiak 6-3, 6-4.
Quarterfinal play tested the Lancers mightily.
After defeating Nicole Knudtson and Anna Foster of Union 6-2 in the first set, the Titans rebounded to snatch a 6-3 second set.
Summoning extra reserve, KC then took a tough 6-4 third set triumph.
In the semifinals, the Lancer duo nailed down a 7-5 first set win against Teagan Mach and Evelyn Wong of Newport, but Newport stroked back to gain the next two sets, 6-3, 6-1, respectively to send KC against the Ravens.
