Chiefs boys sweep Ike as girls fall one match short

MOSES LAKE - A storm came through Moses Lake starting late on Thursday afternoon.

For the Eisenhower tennis team some of their players may have thought it was Hurricane Chiefs.

That's because the Moses Lake boys tennis team blew past the visiting Cadets 7-0 and the girls team gave it all they had before just falling short in a 4-3 loss to their guests.

The boys team wee rarely tasked in winning their first dual decision this season.

In singles play, Josh Black (No. 1) cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win and Tyler Knapp (No. 2) cruised toward a 6-3, 6-1 triumph just days after teaming with Conner Koreis for the No. 2 doubles title in Lewiston.

Levi Huddleston rolled to a 6-1 6-1 win at number three singles and Koreis also carried over his winning momentum from Idaho with a resounding 6-1, 6-1 win at number four singles.

Doubles play was also easily dominated by the Chiefs.

Nat Mengist and Nathan Sanchez teamed up for a 6-1, 6-0 win at number one doubles, Bryce Perez and Dallas Pryor started strong and never looked back at number two doubles, winning 6-0, 6-2 and the number three team of Chris Jones and Harris Turner pulled out a 6-1, 6-3 win.

"Our closest set was 6-3 so it is hard to stay that focused to keep a team down on every court," Moses Lake head coach Jon Wrigley said. "I challenged my boys that are new to varsity, to play with confidence. Pryor and Perez have really been improving it was nice to see them clicking as a team."

The two girls teams battled it out in a much more dramatic battle.

In the long run the difference came in singles play as Eisenhower swept all four matches to counter the Chiefs' sweep of doubles action.

"I've got three new girls in my singles ladder and Jessica Homesley, my lone returner is moving up from number four to number two this season," Wrigley said. "Our inexperience is going to be a challenge, we are working on how to wear down our opponent."

Doubles play saw Moses Lake teams tough things out and pull out victory in all three matches, including two that saw little margin of error between winning and losing.

The number one team of Amanda Hart and Annalise Odegaard held on to win 7-6 (5), 6-4.

The number two duo of Becca Byam and Micayla Strickland also pulled out a narrow win, holding on for a 7-5, 7-6 (5) win.

"I have made it a point that we win tiebreakers when the opportunity arises and we were two for two today as girls doubles got it done," Wrigley said of his top doubles teams each winning a tiebreaker apiece. "That was the best match I have seen from Byam and Strickland, they are moving better and better on the court. "

Wrapping up the Moses Lake dominance in doubles was the number three team of Makena Jansen and Marki Koreis who slipped past their Ike opposition in a 6-3, 6-1 final outcome.

"Jansen and Koreis have found a groove this week," Wrigley said. "They played together on JV quite a bit last season so I figured I would stick them back together.  Once they got a few games in they took over the net and controlled the match."

Overall, despite the girls' defeat, Wrigley is very optimistic of the direction the team is headed in.

"We are getting so much better every day," he said. "We played a solid Ike team and it came down to the final court."