Cardinals have winless week in tennis

MEDICAL LAKE — The Medical Lake boy’s tennis team’s undefeated string came to an end at four matches and did so with a pair of 3-2 losses to Lakeside and Riverside April 26 and 28.

The Cardinal girls also lost their matches to the same Northeast A League opponents, 4-1.

Josh Burt lost a 0-6, 4-6 opener at No. 1 doubles to Lakeside’s Kyle Dillingham. “Josh’s first match in 1st singles was a hard one, but I think he came out of the match having learned a few things,” boys’ head coach Brian Tellez wrote in an email.

In No. 2 singles, Tristan Francis lost a pair of 0-6 sets to Blake Martin as “Tristan just couldn’t find a strategy that worked against his opponent,” Tellez said.

RJ Puckett and Isaac Barr lost 4-6, 1-6 at No. 1 doubles, “Finding their groove” according to their coach, just not soon enough.

Riverside got off to a fast start with a sweep of the two singles matches. Josh Burt as the Rams’ Pau Alvarez Barbero won 0-6, 1-6 before RJ Puckett won his opener but lost the next two, 6-2, 2-6, 3-6.

“His opponent didn’t give much fight in the first set but came back swinging in subsequent sets and RJ just couldn’t make it happen,” Tellez said.

Lakeside also collected victories in both singles games with Burt dropping his 0-6, 4-6 and Francis twice by a 0-6 counts. “Tristan (Francis) just couldn’t find a strategy that worked against his opponent,” Tellez said.

Puckett and Barr opened doubles play with a 4-6, 1-6 defeat, showing some strength early but being unable to maintain it. The Cardinals’ two wins against Lakeside came in doubles, but by default, as the Eagles failed to field teams. That handed Ryen Gibby and Jonah Lindsey at No. 2 and No. 3 Cameron Dickey and Noah Young the easy victories.

Suzana Gavrilyuk won a 6-4, 6-4 opening game win at No. 1 singles against Riverside in a lengthy back-and-forth battle against Echo Mansell.

Medical Lake’s No. 1 girls’ doubles team of Alanyah Bender and Jasmine Lundberg wrested their team’s lone victory against Lakeside, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). “These two are looking more and more like experienced players,” head girls’ coach Dawn Eliassen wrote in an email.

The Cardinals hosted Freeman on May 3 and were on the road May 4 at Newport before a league tournament at sites to be determined.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at pauldelaney53@comcast.net.