Tennis team shows promise

It continues to be a difficult season for the Mount Si High School girls’ tennis team, but they are still showing improvement.

The Wildcats did their best last Tuesday, April 1, at Liberty, but fell to the Patriots. Liberty won seven of nine matches.

The two Mount Si wins were in singles. They went to Meghan Travis, who routed the Patriots’ Kayli Stix 6-1, 6-1; and Allie Van Bryce, who fought off a tough challenge from Paige Martin of Liberty 6-3, 7-5. All the other matches were very close, as Mariana Zanella, Kelsey Wise, Kelcey Simpson and Linnea Olson in singles, and the three Mount Si doubles tandems of Wise and Zanella, Simpson and Olson, and Georgia Reynolds and Vivian Yang, all played well in their defeats to their Patriots opponents.

“The team score of this match (2-7) definitely wasn’t an indicator of how close the match really was,” Mount Si coach Sue Gallacher told the Valley Record. “Linnea lost in three close sets. Both Kelsey Wise and Mariana had great matches at number one and two singles, and all doubles matches were really close.”

Gallacher also praised her two winners.

“I was really impressed with Allie,” she said. “She had a tough opponent, (and) was really focused yesterday and did a great job.

Mount Si faced a much tougher test last Wednesday, April 2, as they hosted Skyline in a makeup match. The Spartans dominated, sweeping all nine contests. However, there were some good efforts by Wildcats in singles, as Zanella, Wise and Olson all forced their Skyline opponents to three sets before falling. Simpson also had a good showing, but was defeated in two sets by Skyline’s Molly Knutson.

The Wildcats traveled to Sammamish last Thursday, April 3, and fared a little better, but still fell short. The Totems took eight out of the nine contests, with Vivian Yang’s come-from-behind 6-4, 6-3 singles victory over Sammamish’s Jenny Wright being Mount Si’s only win. It was quite a confidence boost for the senior.

“I was actually down 1-4 and then I came back and I won 6-4, so I kept talking to myself and I had my teammates out on the other side of the fence encouraging me, too,” she said. “So that brought my game up.”

Wise had a tough day against Sammamish’s Claire Wolf.

“My match didn’t go as well as I hoped,” said Wise, who fell 0-6, 0-6. “They were a really tough team and I really tried, which was really hard. I think I can do better and hopefully next time I will.”

Mount Si takes spring break off, then resumes action April 15 and 17 with home matches against Mercer Island and Juanita, respectively. Olson is hoping the Wildcats can do well in the match against the 4A Rebels.

“I expect us to be really tough against them,” she said.

Comment on this story.

COMMENTING RULES: We encourage an open exchange of ideas in our online community, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. In a nutshell, don't say anything you wouldn't want your mother to read. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.