2A Girls Tennis: Claire Kuykendall Finishes Second at Districts

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W.F. West’s Claire Kuykendall battled for a win in the semifinal round but couldn’t overcome her league rival in the 2A District 4 singles championship on Friday in Olympia.

Kuykendall defeated the Greater Saint Helens League’s No. 1 seed, Samantha Klopman of Washougal, in the semifinals (6-3, 6-1).

In the title match, Kuykendall came back from a 5-2 deficit to take the second set but fell in three to Bond (2-6, 7-5, 1-6).

“She had a great comeback in the second set,” W.F. West coach Jack State said.



In a regular season, Kuykendall would have punched her ticket to the state tournament, which was canceled this year due to the pandemic.

Columbia River won the team title with second- and third-place finishes in doubles and a third-place finish in singles.

Centralia’s Maddie Corwin and Maya O’Dell finished fourth in doubles. They lost 6-1, 6-2 to Columbia River’s Piper Rylander and Ali Dreves in the semifinal round, then lost to Columbia River’s Grace Rudi and Maddie Sheron (7-5, 6-3) in the third/fourth-place game.”

“Maya and Maddie played well,” Centralia coach Deb Keahey said. “In the last match, there were a lot of momentum shifts. Columbia just seemed to win all the crucial points in key games. Guess we’ll have to wait until next year to meet them again.”