Playing with a lineup with tons of fresh faces, the W.F. West girls tennis team fell in its first match of the spring season to R.A. Long Tuesday afternoon, 4-2.
The Bearcats won the top two singles matches, and fell in the rest, with some experience at the top of their singles order and some new faces looking to gain some varsity experience in the rest of their lineup.
The winners for the Bearcats came from Mari Ceesay in the first singles position, defeating RAL’s Marissa Stacey, 6-3, 6-0, while second singles winner Laura Yip of WFW defeated Lyla Khlee, 3-6, 6-0, 6-0.
Both needed between a set and a half to get their tennis legs under them and win comfortably.
“Mari played a girl who hit a lot of balls back and was very steady,” Bearcats coach Jack State said. “She took a few games to figure out what she needed to do against her, but after that she ran off most of the rest of the games. Laura was nervous in the first set but she loosened up and won pretty easily from then on.”
In the third singles spot, RAL’s Kenia Castro defeated Alayna Leal of WFW, 6-4, 6-1. It was Leal’s first varsity singles match after mostly playing doubles a year ago as a freshman.
“Alayna is a sophomore and hasn’t played a lot of singles,” State said. “But I liked the way she hustled, she was all over the court. She’s still getting used to playing singles.”
The Bearcats’ doubles teams were swept by R.A. Long Tuesday, with first singles players Emma Hamilton and Katelyn Wood falling to Emily and Alice Anderson, 6-3, 6-4. The second doubles team of Emma Weerasinghe and Lillian Hueffed of W.F. West fell in a tight three-setter to Olivia Durrett and Audrey Zdunich, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, and third doubles team Jamie Bradley and Joy Pluard of WFW fell to Kassinda Page and Angelica Reyes 7-6, 6-2.
The Bearcats take on Castle Rock back in Chehalis Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.
