Ki-Be slides past Royal

BENTON CITY, Wash. — The Royal Knights boys and girls tennis teams traveled to Kiona-Benton Tuesday afternoon to take on the Bears in South Central Athletic Conference competition.

Despite a valiant effort, both the boys and girls teams returned to Royal City with disappointing 3-2 losses.

Although both the boys and girls teams fell in defeat, Royal head coach Joshua Drewry said he was proud of his teams’ efforts.

“Several matches were very close and could have gone either way,” he said. “Inexperience and nerves probably cost us a win.”

The Royal girls team jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the match when Emily Hoelscher defeated Emily Wilson 7-6 (7-0), 6-0.

Royal’s Breahna Weisser then lost a close match Ki-Be’s Nikki Kearns 6-7 (10-12), 4-6.

Although Weisser lost to Kearns, Drewry said she played well.

“Weisser put in a stellar performance despite eventually losing,” he said. “(She played) an incredibly close match against a girl who is rumored to be Ki-Be’s No. 1 (player).”

The Royal girls 1 and 2 doubles teams both fell to their Ki-Be counterparts and the Bears clinched the match with a 3-1 advantage heading into the final doubles match. Although Royal’s Moriah Christensen and Ariana Martinez won the final doubles match, the Lady Knights still fell 3-2.

In the boys contest, Royal’s Ben Singer helped the Knights get off to a quick start with a sweep over Mark Crawford (6-0, 6-0) to give the Knights a 1-0 lead.

With the Royal boys leading 1-0 early, Candelario Peraza cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set against Matt Zyph before falling behind 5-2 in the second set. Peraza rallied to overcome the 5-2 deficit for a 7-5 victory and a 2-0 Royal lead.

Drewry said he was impressed with Peraza’s performance.

“The gold-star match of the day was probably Candelario (Peraza’s),” he said. “He was down (5-2) in the second set (and) he shook it off and won the next five consecutive games to come back and win the second set 7-5.”

The Royal boys lost their first doubles match when Angel Ledezma and Noah Grant fell to Charles McClammer and Ethan Clouse 6-1 and 6-1. With the doubles victory, the Bears cut the Royal lead to 2-1.

However, Royal forfeited the final two doubles matches and the Ki-Be boys team claimed the match with a 3-2 victory.