Hood River Valley’s boys tennis team finished third in its first season in the Northwest Oregon Conference dual match standings and is playing this week in the district’s tournament in east Portland.
The Eagles lost, 5-4, at home to Wilsonville on May 1 — following a short ceremony to honor the team’s eight seniors — and then beat Hillsboro on May 2 to compete their NWOC matches. Had HRV won both matches, the Eagles, Wilsonville, and La Salle would have finished in a three-way tie for first.
The NWOC awards a dual match champion (Wilsonville) based on head-to-head competition throughout the season. The conference also awards a district tourney champ. If the two are the same, one overall champion is crowned. The 2023 NWOC district tourney is May 8 and 10 at Parkrose High School.
Hood River earned one seed at the district tourney — the Eagles’ top doubles team of Lewis Heck and Zayd Ziada are seeded No. 4. Defending champions Eldon and Breslin Nichols of La Salle, are the top seeds in boys doubles. Also playing doubles at district for HRV are Parker Ford and John Hotchkiss; Oscar Avalos and Isaiah Poole; and Eric Cruz and Judah Caudill.
“They have a difficult first-round match,” HRV Coach Jon Hiatt said of Heck and Ziada, who face Wilsonville’s JJ Bartlett and Gedde McKnight in the first round. “Most people say they’re almost as good as their [Wilsonville’s] No. 1 doubles, which are seeded No. 3.”
Hiatt said there is plenty of balance in the conference. “There are two top players in the state [in the NWOC],” he said. “There are a lot of decent players that can win matches. Pretty much every match at district is going to be a difficult one. It’s going to be a dogfight. It’ll be pretty exciting.”
HRV’s match that decided the dual title was close until the end. “We fell one match short of tying for the league dual meet title. We were really close,” Hiatt said. “We ended third, which is good, but a little short of our goal.
“Looking forward to breaking through at the tournament.”
The Wilsonville-Hood River match that determined the final result of the May 1 dual — in No. 3 doubles — was tied, 5-5, in the third set before the Wildcats scored the final two points for the win. HRV’s Ford and Hotchkiss won the first set 6-0, but lost the second, 6-3, to Wilsonville’s Cameron Azizi and Ryan Juster.
Hiatt said HRV had to win three of the last four matches of the dual to earn the championship tie. The No. 4 doubles match was equally as close, with the Eagles winning in a tie-break third set.
“Our depth was really good this year,” Hiatt said. “We won a lot of matches just from our lower guys winning.”
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