ML tennis falls just short of state trip

Close was as near as the Medical Lake girls tennis team got to the state tournament following regional play last weekend at West Valley High School in Spokane.

“We needed to win just two matches to qualify for the state tournament, but couldn’t make it happen,” co-head coach Dawn Eliassen said.

The Cardinals were represented in the combined A-B regional by Cassidy Hagel and Annette Carlson at No. 1 doubles play and won their opening match over Reardan 6-2, 6-2.

“This was a good first round matchup,” Eliassen said. “I was hoping they could work out some tournament jitters and gain some confidence.” The girls handled this team quite well, she added.

In the semifinals versus B-school entry, Odessa-Harrington, which they won 4-6, 7-6, 4-6. “The O-H team was the number one finisher in the B school district tournament,” Eliassen said. “Our girls were the more polished doubles team, Cassidy’s serve was on fire resulting in some easy points during those games,” she said.

However Odessa-Harrington was a huge fan of the high, loopy, deep lob, Eliassen explained. “This nearly eliminated the effectiveness of our girls at the net.”

“Unfortunately we were banking on aggressive net play to get us through the tournament,” Eliassen said.

Medical Lake had a second chance at qualifying and move on and needed to beat Davenport for that chance. But the Cardinals lost 4-6, 2-6. “This was a better match up for our girls,” Eliassen said. “But it seemed like Annette and Cassidy couldn’t find their groove at the same time.”

“It’s definitely a disappointment not to be moving on,” Eliassen said. “Those two girls practiced hard all week, we were trying to stay focused on just taking things one match at a time.”

The good thing to take away from it all is both Carlson and Hagel still had a lot of success this season, and are just juniors this year.

“So next spring we ought to be able to pick up where we left off and be even better prepared when we have this opportunity again,” Eliassen said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.