LONGVIEW — Three girls from the Twin Cities punched their tickets to the state tournament, while there is still an opportunity for two more netters to make the cut after Day 1 of the 2A District 4 girls tennis tournament here on Friday.
W.F. West’s Sydney Cameron found success in the singles category, defeating Mark Morris’ Alexis Troy, 6-2, 6-1, in the first match. She followed up that performance by defeating another Monarch, Maddy Pond, 6-1, 6-0, to advance to the district championship match.
“Sydney raised her game quite a bit to the level of competition in that second match,” W.F. West coach Jack State said.
Cameron has already earned her state berth, since she will be in the top three finishers by default. She will need to come prepared in the district title round, however, as she will be facing off with Castle Rock’s Faith Grisham, who won both of her matches by a score of 6-0, 6-0.
Centralia’s lone entrant in the district tournament also had promising performances in the opening day of districts. Rachel Wilkerson and Carissa Kaut battled their way through doubles action, defeating their first opponents Rylee Erdwins and Emily Johnson (Washougal) in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
“Rachel and Carissa got off to a slow start,” Centralia coach Deb Keahey said. “This game was a wake up call for them, but they picked it up and continued playing some of the best tennis I’ve seen them play this season.”
Wilkerson and Kaut didn’t need three sets in their second victory, as they defeated Tumwater’s Sophia Koelsch and Abby Bond, 6-4, 6-1. The duo is guaranteed a trip to state, but they will have one more challenge prior in the district championship game against the undefeated Washougal tandem of Rebecca Boylan and Beyonce Bea.
“I always knew our girls had it in them,” Keahey said. “Today they just played their hearts out, and they picked the best time to do it. The hope is they come with more energy and focus tomorrow than they did today.”
The Bearcats had one more participant in the tournament in the form of Megan Wilks and Mya Davis. The two won their first doubles match against Janice Kolesnikova and Truly Rylander (Castle Rock) by a score of 6-3, 6-2, before falling in the second match to the aforementioned Boylan and Bea, 6-2, 6-1.
“Megan and Mya ran into a team that was very hot and didn’t make many mistakes,” State said. “Boylan and Bea are undefeated on the season and didn’t give our girls many chances to make anything happen.”
Wilks and Davis will now need to win out and take the next two matches in order to take third place and stay alive for the state tournament. They will open things up with a match against Erdwins and Johnson.
The district tournament will wrap up today.
