Chiefs Knapp, Koreis claim doubles crown in Lewiston

LEWISTON - A strong run of doubles play produced a champion and an overall competitive showing for the Moses Lake tennis teams at this weekend's Lewiston Invitational.

Tyler Knapp and Conner Koreis teamed up to win the title at No, 2 doubles, going unbeaten in six matches - three in pool play and three in the elimination rounds - capping off their run with an 8-5 win over Trent Hellman/Nate McMundie (Borah HS) in the championship.

"It was some of the best tennis I had played in a long time and I had a lot of fun," Knapp said. "We used a lot of Wrigley's coaching to help us close the matches with controlling net play and getting up their to put our shots away. Conner and I click pretty well. We like to hang out outside of the court and are pretty good friends and that makes winning the title even greater."

Overall, the duo's run was quite dominant with their closest match being the final and a quarterfinal triumph of the same score.

"The two keys were Tyler's serving because he has a great serve and I was putting away balls whenever one popped up," Koreis said. "We are good friends off the court and have been playing together for three years now so we know how to talk to each other to get each other psyched up and how to work together."

The duo's win was quite momentous for the Chiefs' program.

"Koreis and Knapp are the first players I've coached to win a tournament," Chiefs head coach Jon Wrigley said. "Conner and Tyler were sitting beside me as we watched the Ferris match unfold for our first doubles.  They got to see some things strategically that really helped them in day two."

Also for the boys, the No. 1 Chiefs team of Josh Black/Levi Huddleston bounced back from a 1-2 mark in pool play to win the consolation championship in an 8-3 win over Kamiakin's Jake Lehew/Colton Ruegesster.

"Black and Huddleston saw a difficult draw in round robin play," Wrigley said. "They lost to a Timberline team who reached the finals and a Ferris team who made regionals last season.  We were up 7-4 and serving against Ferris and got a bit tight, it was a tough loss but we are here to learn how to get through these big matches."

They would lose 9-8 to Ferris, dropping the tiebreaker 7-4.

On the girls' side, two doubles teams fell in the quarterfinals after strong pool performances.

The No. 1 team of Jessica Homesley/Courtney Kunjara dropped a 6-1 decision in the quarterfinals after a 2-1 mark in Friday's pool play.

Amanda Hart and Annalise Odegaard, the No. 2 team, swept through pool play with a 3-0 record and a 24-4 total games mark, before getting knocked off 6-4 by a Mountain View duo.

They played six-game sets due to inclement weather.

 "Our girls doubles started out slow on day two, with the modified matches due to weather there was no room for error," Wrigley said. "Hart and Odegaard were down 0-5 before running off four straight games."

No singles players on either the boys or girls' side advanced into the championship bracket.

"I have been trying to get an invite to this tournament since I arrived at Moses Lake," Wrigley said. "It was a great experience for our players to get a look at this level of competition at the start of the season."