Good times keep bouncing girls tennis team’s way

Published 7:00 am Saturday, April 26, 2014

It has been a month since the South Whidbey girls tennis team lost a match after the Falcons swept Coupeville and Lakewood this week.

The two victories extended South Whidbey’s winning streak to six matches and boosted its Cascade Conference record to 5-0.

On April 22, the Falcons defeated their island rivals, the Wolves, 5-0 for the second time this season. Isla Dubendorf fought off Coupeville’s top singles player for the past two seasons, Allie Hannigan, 7-5, 6-4. At second singles, South Whidbey sophomore Bayley Gochanour defeated McKenzie Bailey 6-1, 6-1.

The Falcons’ top duo of seniors, Tess Radisch and Amelia Weeks, combined to defeat Coupeville’s Samantha Martin and Sydney Aparicio 6-1, 6-1. South Whidbey’s Colleen Groce and Lindsay Oppelt recovered from a second-set loss to win a third-set tiebreaker 10-8. In the third doubles match, Falcons Katrina Layton and Brea Gauger defeated Mickey Levine and Valen Trujillo 7-5, 6-1.

On Wednesday, the Falcons took on the Lakewood Cougars, a 2A team, and played four singles matches and three doubles matches. South Whidbey also shook up its roster a bit, with different doubles partner combinations.

Radisch and Weeks stayed at the top spot and beat Lakewood’s Madde DeYoung and Alex Wolfe 6-1, 6-0. For the second doubles match, Groce paired with Katherine Reed to beat Zaya Tsengelmaa and Lexi Zbiegien 6-0, 6-0. The third doubles team of Falcons Anna Lynch and Sophie Nilsen beat Lakewood’s Courtney Young and Courtney St. John 6-0, 6-4.

In singles, Dubendorf had to fight back from a second-set loss to beat Christina Barker 6-4, 0-6, 7-5. Gochanour cruised through her match in defeating Kylie Staley 6-3, 6-3. Falcon sophomore Kendra Warwick played in the third singles match and defeated Hannah Krutsinger 6-3, 6-0. Macey Bishop nearly shut out Lakewood’s Erin Espeland in a 6-0, 6-1 win.