Moses Lake tennis splits with Cadets

MOSES LAKE - The Chiefs boys team bounced back in a big way after being shutout by Wenatchee Tuesday with a dominate 7-0 win at home over the Eisenhower Cadets.

"I challenged the boys to stay focused and set a goal of losing less than 10 games," coach Jon Wrigley said. "And they did a great job maintaining that high level of play against Ike today."

The team did in fact, exceeded Wrigley's expectations, as the boys dropped just six games on the day in the shutout win.

Drew Perez had little trouble dispatching Brandon Garza in two sets, 6-1, 6-0 at first singles to get things rolling for the Chiefs.

Tiernan Hall backed up his win with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Martin Martinez at second singles, and Nolan Knapp and Bryan Earl kept the momentum moving forward as they blanked their opponents by identical 6-0, 6-0 scores at third and fourth singles.

At first doubles it was Jordan Earl and Josh Hirz following suit with a dominate 6-0, 6-1 performance against Chi Lu and Jaiden Marquis. Second doubles Jesse Alvarado and Pedro Barreras beat Karlos Galindo and Vincente Velasco in two sets 6-0, 6-1, and Connor Uhlinger and Tyler Wade turned back Tre Peterson and Edward Uribe 6-1, 6-0 at third doubles.

The win over the Cadets evened the boys record in Big 9 league play at 2-2.

Girls

The girls team wasn't as fortunate as the boys as they only managed to win two of five matches.

Although there were some close games, second singles Carina LeFave was the lone winner in the individual competition with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Elizabeth Glenski.

The second doubles team of Liz Busherd and Ciara Schwab picked up the other win for the Chiefs with a two set 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Madonna Nguyen and Katie Patterson.

"We used up all of our karma in close wins over Wenatchee and Eastmont," Wrigley said. "We had some close losses that just came down to a few points. Marki and Ece have been the foundation for our victories. They both felt there were opportunities missed to close out their matches.  Carina is playing at such a high level since we returned from break. She is transitioning to singles and starting to see things click.  Ciara and Liz put together a solid match. We have been working on movement and court coverage with them and it has been improving every day."

The loss for the girls drops their record to 2-2 in league play and 2-4 overall.

Moses Lake is back in action Saturday when the team travels to Spokane for a nonleague match against Gonzaga Prep.

"We are looking forward to a competitive match," Wrigley said. "But it will be a challenge as they are a traditionally strong team."