Cheney girls’ tennis falls at Pullman, West Valley in Great Northern openers

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

With 40 girls on the varsity/junior varsity rosters, new Cheney High School girls tennis head coach Corey Anderson has two tasks. First, prepare an experienced core of varsity returnees for playoff action and second, bring along some young talent in order to prepare for the future.

Anderson said the Blackhawks’ strength right now is probably in their doubles teams, but that isn’t to imply the singles are weak. It’s more a situation of getting players who’s varsity experience for the most part has been playing doubles to change their court approach to the singles game.

Three seniors will anchor the Blackhawks’ four individual spots. Michelle Passey spent the past two seasons playing solidly as the No. 2 player behind Missy Gill, who graduated in 2009.

In fact Passey and Gill paired at last year’s district competition and came within a couple of third set service breaks of knocking off West Valley’s Anh Phan and Dru Sanchez for the second and final slot to state. Passey now brings her power game to the No. 1 individual slot.

“She can hit the tar off the ball,” Anderson said, adding the challenge is to control that power and get her back into thinking the singles game.

Senior Alyssa Bray moves from her No. 2 doubles role last year into the No. 2 singles slot, showing a never-give-up-on-a-ball court work ethic. Bray’s partner last year, senior Jessica Ziemann, takes the No. 3 position, where Anderson said she has shown she is a good serve and volley player, possessing solid net skills.

Alla Chekulayeva moves into the No. 4 singles slot. The sophomore got some varsity experience last season, again in doubles, and tries her hand at singles this season.

In doubles juniors Michelle Celone and Melissa Jamison have earned the No. 1 spot, with junior Crystal Feller and sophomore Abi Smith teaming at No. 2 and seniors Caitlin Miller and Nycole Morgan emerging at No. 3. Anderson said all of them are working on getting used to the aggressive style of doubles, learning to get to the net quicker and more forcefully.

“I’m hoping by the middle of the season we’re going to start peaking,” he added.

After that Anderson said he has a big group of sophomores waiting in the wings on JV. It’s a group with a lot of promise.

“I’m hoping to get them some varsity experience this year so they’ll be ready for next year,” Anderson said.

Anderson himself is getting up to speed in his new role as head coach. The past two seasons he has been the Blackhawk boys’ assistant coach. Prior to that he was assistant coach for three years at Moses Lake High School, 2004-2007, and prior to taking some time off while living on the west side of the state, was the varsity head coach at Deer Park High School from 1998-1999.

The Blackhawks’ girls got off to a rough start with two matches on the road against challenging opponents. Cheney traveled to Pullman on Wednesday, losing 6-1, and then took to the bus again to West Valley on Thursday, losing 7-0 to the Eagles.

In singles action at Pullman, Passey lost 0-6, 0-6 to Emily Funabiki at No.1 while Bray lost to Vivianna Barona, 1-6, 1-6 at No. 2. At No. 3, Ziemann looked good in the first set, but couldn’t recover the momentum in the final two, losing 6-2, 2-6, 1-6 to Malissa Vollmer, while Mary Floyd, moving into the No. 4 slot, lost to Megan Lam, 0-6, 0-6.

In doubles, Celone and Jamison lost to Rachel Mathison and Sam Hruban, 4-6,7- 6 (1), 2-6 at No. 1, with Feller and Smith falling in to Vishaka Muhlhthan, 2-6, 3-6. Miller and Morgan got the Blackhawks only win, defeating Brilliana Hon and Milly Xun, 6-2, 6-3.

At West Valley the Blackhawks likely ran out of gas, having played back-to-back matches. Passey lost to Amanda Poulos 2-6, 1-6, Bray fell to Daisy Powell 1-6, 1-6, while Ziemann lost in three sets to Veronika Dederer and Floyd lost 2-6, 6-7 to Jackie Swanson in a match more competitive than the scores indicated.

“Mary played fantastic. She showed a lot of maturity,” Anderson said.

In doubles, Celone and Jamison fell to the 2009 state tournament of Phan and Sanchez by identical 0-6 scores, with Feller and Smith losing by the same scores to Nikki Langfor and Sophie Montulet. Miller and Morgan came close to reprising their winning performance at Pullman the previous day, but in the end lost to Brittany Hunter and Ashley Wilhelm, 6-2, 6-7, 5-7.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.