THE HRV GIRLS TENNIS TEAM took the first round of conference play, beating The Dalles Tuesday in Hood River. Alivea Harsanyi and Kayla Green (pictured below) in the No. 3 doubles match.
THE HRV GIRLS TENNIS TEAM took the first round of conference play, beating The Dalles Tuesday in Hood River. Alivea Harsanyi and Kayla Green (pictured below) in the No. 3 doubles match.
Ben Mitchell
Kayla Green
Ben Mitchell
Sally Evans and Kali Wetherell (below) in the No. 4 doubles match.
With the first round of Columbia River Conference play in the books, the HRV girls tennis team remains perfect, defeating The Dalles 6-2 Tuesday in Hood River to go 3-0 in conference matches and 6-0 overall in dual matches.
The Eagles have enjoyed a great deal of success in singles competition this season, but on Tuesday, it was doubles competition that gave HRV the edge, with the home team taking all four matches. Once again, it was difficult for Erin Mason to find much to criticize his athletes about, but a strong regular season already has the first-year head coach thinking ahead to the postseason, which will require even greater efforts from the Eagles.
“I am very happy in general, but I also have some constructive criticism for my girls in their wins. As the season goes on, I am happy to be winning, but now it is time to start fine tuning everyone’s games to the best of my ability,” he noted. “There are always small aspects of the game that each player can improve on and now as we move forward, I need to work hard to get these ladies ready for district play.”
Bianca Badillo and Claire Oswald set the tone for the day with a two-set win in No. 2 doubles competition, defeating Maggie Corey and Cassie Vasquez 6-1, 7-5. America and Crystal Flores hung on in the top spot of doubles competition, edging Abby Minnick and Ellie Trujillo 7-6 (7-2 tiebreaker) in the first set, coming up short with a 5-7 result in the second set, then pulling off a decisive 10-2 victory in the tiebreaker. Kayla Green and Alivea Harsanyi also had to work hard for their win in the No. 3 position after falling behind 5-7 in the first set to the duo of Lupita Contreras and Natalie Varland. They then rebounded with a decisive 6-1 win in the second and a 10-1 victory in the tiebreaker. Sally Evans and Kali Wetherell easily took the No. 4 match, defeating Jessica Vega and Liz Leon by a score of 6-1 in both sets.
In singles competition, Kirby Joseph didn’t have much trouble at No. 3, beating Jocelyn Hernandez 6-0, 6-2. Yasmeen Ziada also controlled play in the No. 4 match, winning 6-2, 6-1 over Yahairra Alvarez. HRV’s two losses of the evening came in the No. 1 and No. 2 singles matches, both against “tough opponents,” Mason said. Montsie Garrido, returning from an arm injury, started out strong with a 5-4 lead in the first set against Robin Pashek in the No. 1 match, but lost three straight games to drop the first set 5-7, then the second set 3-6. Nikki Paulus had trouble gaining much ground against Kian Pielli in the No. 2 match, losing 1-6, 2-6.
The girls hosted Sandy Friday at 4 p.m. (results not available at press time), then return to league competition Wednesday with a home match against Hermiston at 4 p.m., which will be the Eagles’ last home match of the season.
Boys tennis loses close one to TD
The boys tennis team lost their first league match of the season by a razor’s edge, falling to The Dalles on the road 5-3 in a contest that could have gone either way.
“There were opportunities in doubles to grab a set here and there, which would have turned the match in our favor, but hand it to The Dalles, they came up big when it mattered,” admitted HRV Head Coach Jon Hiatt.
Three of the eight matches went to three sets, including two impressive rallies by Simon Harsanyi and Soren Rajani in the No. 1 and 3 singles matches, respectively. After getting skunked by Quinn Wilson in the opening set, Harsanyi stormed back to take the second 6-4 and the third-set tiebreaker 10-5. Rajani fell behind 3-6 to start his match, then rebounded 6-1, 10-7.
“Simon and Soren made unbelievable comebacks to grab some important wins,” Hiatt said. “Really proud that they kept with it mentally and persevered for their wins.”
Nash Levy also won his match, taking No. 4 over Andy Lopez (6-2, 6-3). Chris Riviello rounded out singles play, losing to James Pashek (1-6, 4-6).
In doubles, Adam and Luke Harter lost 5-7, 1-6 to Alex Lopez and Omar Rodriguez in the first match, while Arnulfo Perez and Jay Fiedler lost 2-6, 6-7 (3) in the second match to Ethan Martin and Brandon Bustamonte. Charlie Bickford and Reece Carroll couldn’t get by Devam Patel and Justin Eiesland in the No. 3 match (3-6, 4-6). Ben Fick and John Hunter nearly pulled out a win in a hard-fought No. 4 doubles match, but fell just short, taking the first set 6-4, then losing in the second set (5-7) and the match tiebreaker (9-11).
On Saturday, HRV will take their No. 1’s and 2’s to a tournament in Madras.
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