Huskies advance five entries in CWAC District Tennis tournament
Othello's Brean Tovar serves during her opening round victory at the CWAC District Tennis Tournament Saturday at Ephrata High School.
EPHRATA — Five of Othello’s entries into the CWAC District Tennis Tournament survived the occasional rain drops and the cold and windy conditions at Ephrata to advance to Tuesday’s second round of play.
“We had five out of the ten teams make it to Tuesday,” Othello coach Robert Pruneda said. “We hope to have a good practice Monday to get ready for Tuesday.”
Brean Tovar and Diego Villarreal were the only Othello winners on the singles side.
Tovar advanced with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Zanidy Garza of Wapato while third seeded Villarreal defeated Selah’s Matt Watkins 6-0, 6-1.
“Diego looked the best he has looked all year,” Pruneda said. “His ground strokes were amazing.”
Sylvia Rodriguez and Jonathan DeLeon both lost their opening round singles match.
On the doubles side, the Huskies advanced two girls and one boys entry.
Tanaya Andersen and Katie Walker defeated Daughs/Harris of East Valley 7-6 (9-7), 7-5.
“Tanaya and Katie survived a close one versus. East Valley,” Pruneda said. “They started out real slow and kept hitting the ball to the girl at the net. I felt like they played tight but made some adjustments to eventually beat them in three sets.”
Othello’s No. 2 seed team of Kylee Hawley/Zoee Roylance had a first-round bye and will square off with Herzog/Goodpaster from Selah on Tuesday.
The Huskies second seeded boys team of Collin Freeman/Kyler Villarreal received a first-round bye and will play at 10:45 on Tuesday in the quarterfinal round.
The CWAC has three berths to state on the boys side and two berths on the girls side — there is no cross-over with the Great Northern League. The only returning state qualifiers playing in this year’s district tournament are the top seeded girls’ doubles team of Lauren McDevitt/Cailin O’Malley from Selah.
The other three Othello doubles teams all lost their opening round matches and have been eliminated from the district tournament.
Becky Boersma/Macy Hampton lost 6-2, 5-7, 1-6 to Melton/Lonowski from Ellensburg.
“I thought our girls were capable of beating those girls, but at the end experience ended up winning,” Pruneda said. “Ellensburg was lobbing more effective and we couldn’t make the adjustments.”
Othello’s doubles team of Sterling Roylance/Josh Valdez lost to Beecroft/Buffin of Selah 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (4-7).
“Sterling and Josh lost a heart breaker — losing in a tie breaker twice,” Pruneda said. “Both teams did well at the net, but Selah was more consistent.”
Garza/Villarreal lost to Solis/Foster from Prosser 6-2, 6-0.
The CWAC district tournament continues on Tuesday, 9 a.m., at Ephrata High School. The tournament concludes on May 21, with finals scheduled for 11:30 a.m.
Other area results
Ephrata advanced two in the girls singles bracket: Jennie DeLeon and No. 2 seed Teighan Moore.
Ephrata’s Garner Sears and Quincy’s Noah Hoeger are still alive in the boys singles bracket. The Tigers have three teams left in girls doubles and boys doubles each.
Quincy also has three pairings left in girls and boys doubles each.