Moses Lake tennis splits with Eastmont

EAST WENATCHEE - Moses Lake evened its record to 1-1 in the Columbia Basin Big Nine tennis league standings with a win from the girls team and a loss for the boys at Eastmont High School Tuesday. The Lady Chiefs turned back the Wildcats 4-3, while the boys were handed a 5-2 defeat.

Girls

Eastmont jumped out to a 2-0 lead with wins a first and second doubles as Abby Waterhouse beat Courtney Kunjara in two sets, 6-1, 6-1, and Carina LeFave lost 6-1, 6-0 to Jenae Bickford. Moses Lake bounced back to even the match 2-2 with consecutive three set wins at third and fourth singles with Ece Yilmaz turning back Tangela Pacascio 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-2, and Marki Koreis beating Jasmine Burt 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

The Wildcats regained the lead 3-2 when first doubles Jordan Morrow and Rachel Schwarz downed Dorothy Catey and Sierra Gallaway 6-1, 7-6 (5). But wins by Liz Busherd and Ciara Schwab over Jade Hayes and Kyra Wonder at second doubles (6-2,6-1) and Quennie Bacat and Julia Medel over Cassie Davis and Elses Turner (6-1, 6-1) at third doubles allowed the Chiefs to come away with a victory.

"This was a big win for us," coach Jon Wrigley said. "They beat us 4-3 last year at their place, so when we got down early it was kind of like dejavu all over again, But the tide turned ... our depth came through ... we won a couple of close game at third and fourth singles and that got things going for us."

Boys

Moses Lake boys found the going rough against the Wildcats as the team lost 5-of-7 games. The Chiefs bookended the match winning the first game and losing the last.

Drew Perez got the initial win at first singles with a three set 3-6, 6-1,6-1 victory over Deven Erhol. But the Wildcats ran off a string of five straight wins to dominate the competition. Second singles Josh Waterhouse beat Nolan Knapp 6-1,6-0, Jesse Pacascio defeated Marco Sanchez 7-5,6-0 at third singles, and Jace Hunt lost to Brian Merrill 6-4,6-4 at four singles. In the doubles matches, it was first doubles Jordan Earl and Josh Hirz falling to Anthony Brimble in two sets, 6-2, 6-3, and second doubles Jesse Alvarado and Pedro Barrerras dropping their games to Ryan Guske and Tristan Thompson, 6-2, 7-6(7), 6-1. But third doubles Kenan DeHart and Chad Palmer shut down Spence Canada and Seth Shjandemaar 6-1, 6-3 to end the match on a positive note for Moses Lake.

"Two of our top four kids were unavailable for the match as they were fighting off a bug and that made it tough to compete," Wrigley said. "So we knew we were going to have to play up to beat them. That didn't happen, but we didn't give away any points. Drew beat one of the top singles players in the league, so that was a big win for him."

The Chiefs are out of action until April 9 when the team hosts a league match against Wenatchee. First serve is slated for 3 p.m.

"Wenatchee is the top team in the league. The boys haven't beaten them since 1995. They have a lot of talent and keep coming at you. Our guys have adopted the mantra "Fear none ... go out and play," so they are looking forward to the challenge," Wrigley said. "The girls have never beaten Wenatchee. We were in the building with them last year, losing 5-2. They are deep as well, so this is a big opportunity for the girls to show how they stack up against them this year."