Othello Tennis to perform on the big stage

EPHRATA — The last match of the day played out on the verge of the spectacular with points extended with running forehands, good old fashioned toe-to-toe tennis at the net, and smashes pounded so hard they left the court and bounced off down the street.

The 2A District 5-6 boy’s doubles championship featured one more shootout between Othello’s Collin Freeman and Kyler Villarreal and Aidan Fallstrom and Jask Khinda from East Valley. As the match moved into its third hour, it was the only championship yet to be determined, and tennis fans gathered around the featured court at Ephrata High School.

Villarreal and Freeman worked their way back from a 0-4 deficit in the third set to close the gap to 5-4 with Khinda trying to hold serve for the championship.

Othello pressured on every point, coming to the net and eventually taking a 30-15 advantage. But instead of a double-break point with a chance to tie the match at 5-5, an errant smash caught the tape and fell back to make it 30-30.

“The key to playing these guys is playing hard and not giving up on shots,” said Villarreal. “We worked on keeping the ball in play. We missed some shots, but if you can get the ball back it increases the odds of winning the point.”

Villarreal and Freeman held off a match point at 40-30, but Fallstrom and Khinda took the advantage again on the next point and closed the match out to win the 2A District 5-6 boys doubles championship 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Villarreal and Freeman have just three losses this season, once to Fallstrom and Khinda in non-league and now for the second time in the district championship.

“We’re playing as well as we have all year. I think we’re peaking right now. Hopefully we’ll peak again at state,” Villarreal said. “Moving forward, we know the west side guys are going to be good, but I think we can hang with them. We just have to play smart, make some difficult shots to get the momentum. But I think we can hit with anybody right now.”

The 2A state tennis championships will be Friday and Saturday at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on the University of Washington campus.

Girls

Othello senior Zoee Roylance lost for just the second time this season, dropping a straight-set match to Mary-Frances Ballew of Selah, 6-2, 6-4. Roylance, who played doubles with Kylee Hawley at the state tournament last year, will be making a return appearance in singles this year.

Ballew controlled Saturday’s match, but Roylance went down swinging with a better second set.

“I thought I played better than the last time I played her. I wanted to keep the ball in play longer and try to make her make mistakes,” Roylance said. “Moving forward, I just want to continue to play smart and confident at the state tournament. It’s about having fun.”

Othello’s Tanaya Andersen and Katie Walker had to play the best tennis of their lives, but at the end of the day, the Huskies seniors punched their ticket to the state tennis championships with a spectacular three-set slugfest, complete with third-set tiebreaker.

Anderson and Walker, who have been partners for the past four years, won a crossover match 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) to advance.

“You have to be mentally tough in the tie-breakers. You have to remember the work you’ve put in together, that you know how to make your shots and how to back up your partner,” Walker said. “We were down 2-1 in the tiebreaker, but we came back. This means a lot, all of the work over the last four years, the time after practice, before practice, we actually went to a camp over the summer, has all paid off and now we’re going to state.”

Andersen said, “We’ve had a few three-set matches this tournament and we’ve come through and know that we can come back and play - we have each other’s back. We’re there for each other. When I’m at the net and Katie’s serving, I never doubt her serve. I know it’s going in and that shot coming back is going to be mine.”