Moses Lake tennis splits with Eastmont

MOSES LAKE - Moses Lake boys tennis avenged an early season road loss at Eastmont with a 4-3 win over the Wildcats at home Tuesday.

The girls weren't as fortunate as they dropped their match to Eastmont, 4-3, after beating the Wildcats on their home turf March 26.

"We circled the date after our loss at their place. They caught us down two varsity players, and we wanted to get the victory and get back into position to finish in the top two in league," coach Jon Wrigley said. "The girls won every close match at Eastmont, but today (Tuesday), we wound up a little short."

Boys

The Chiefs split singles matches with the Wildcats, then took two out of three doubles games to earn the win. First singles Drew Perez turned back Deven Erho in two sets, 6-4, 6-3. Eastmont responded with a win a second singles when Anthony Brimble defeated Nolan Knapp 6-2, 7-5 to even things up 1-1. Third singles Jace Hunt got Moses Lake back on the winning track with a three set 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 victory over Jesse Pacascio.

The Chiefs Bryan Earl pushed the Wildcats Brian Merrill to three sets at fourth singles before dropping the game, 4-6, 6-3, 3-6 to give Eastmont its second win.

First doubles Tiernan Hall and Marco Sanchez dropped their game to Colton Erho and Josh Waterhouse 1-6, 2-6 to give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead in the match.

Back-to-back wins by Jordan Earl and Josh Hirz at second doubles and Kenan Dehart and Chad Palmer at third doubles allowed Moses Lake to pull out the win, 4-3.

"Jace came up huge again for us.  I knew it (the match) would come down to third and fourth singles, so we needed one of them to pull out a win," Wrigley said. "The boys team as a whole, is very supportive of each other, and really stepped up today (Tuesday). I love seeing the players excited about their success."

Girls

The girls got off to a rocky start, dropping three of four singles games, but bounced back to win two out of three at doubles competition. The lone win at singles play was turned in by Marki Koeris who defeated Tangela Pacascio in three sets 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.

The Chiefs second doubles team of Liz Busherd and Ciara Schwab beat Jade Hayes and Kyra Wonder 6-1, 6-0, and third doubles Quennie Bacat and Julia Medel followed suit with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Cassie Divis and Else Turner.

"Ece has been such a key piece of our success this year, but just couldn't get going until the hole was too big," Wrigley said. "Marki won another three set match versus Eastmont after being down 0-3 in the last set. She really showed her experience in varsity matches this afternoon. Our doubles was really efficient at the bottom two spots.  Win or lose, our girls have shown resolve. It's such a fun group to coach because they just keep fighting on every court. I love the level of competitive spirit they have found."

The victory for the boys put the team at 5-2 in Big 9 conference play, and 6-4 overall and two wins back of first place Wenatchee with three league matches left in the regular season.

The loss for the girls drops the Chiefs to 3-4 in league play, and 3-6 overall and into fourth place in the standings.

Moses Lake is back in action Friday and Saturday when the team takes part in the Inland Empire Tournament in Spokane.

"It's a good tournament to get a feel for where we are at heading into the post season," Wrigley said. "More than 40 schools are expected to participate. I'm hoping our solid depth will help us get to the second day for some events."