Lange helps team advance
Sharon Lange/courtesy photo<br> Moses Lake senior Connor Lange serves the tennis ball while competing for the Chiefs during the 2009 spring tennis season.
BEAVERTON, Ore. — Moses Lake senior Connor Lange helped his Central Washington tennis team to a championship performance at the Pacific Northwest Junior Team Tennis Sectional tournament in Beaverton, Ore., July 31 through Aug. 2.
The Central Washington team is comprised of Lange and seven additional players from Wenatchee, Wash. The teams at the Pacific Northwest Junior Sectional Tournament were made up of four male and four female participants, Lange said.
“Basically it is all kids from Wenatchee and then me,” he said. “I go over to (Wenatchee) during the winter to hit and I got together with them. We put a team together (for the sectional tournament) and we won it.”
Lange and his Central Washington team competed through pool play to earn a No. 4 seed heading into tournament play. The Central Washington team beat out 14 other teams to earn the tournament championship.
On their way to the tournament championship, the Central Washington team squared off with the overall No. 1 seed in the semifinals.
While Lange and his team came away with the victory, he and his teammates were apprehensive.
“We didn’t think we could beat them because they were creaming everybody,” he said. “We figured out a really good line up and everything meshed together when we needed it to. We went in thinking we were a good team, but we didn’t think we could do it.”
With the win at the Pacific Northwest Junior Team Tennis Sectional Tournament, Lange and his teammates qualified for the United States Tennis Association National tournament this fall. Lange and his teammates will travel to Mobile, Ala., to participate in the national championships Oct. 30 through Nov. 1.
Lange is the No. 1 varsity singles player for the Moses Lake Chiefs and finished fifth at this year’s regional tournament.
Lange said the Pacific Northwest sectional tournament will prepare him for his senior season at Moses Lake.
“There was a lot of stress at the (tournament),” he said. “(The tournament) helped me deal with the stress and seeing different talent will help me heading into next season.”