The 2006 Mount Si boys’ tennis season came to a quick end Oct. 20 and 21.

It started out well enough for the Wildcats as Mount Si won both playoff singles matches against Liberty to qualify those players for the Kingco tournament Oct. 20. In those matches, the Wildcats’ Bryce Wilson defeated the Patriots’ David Panks 6-4, 6-0, and Mount Si’s Derek Aldrich took care of Liberty’s Frank Stanasek 6-4, 6-2. The Wildcats did not fare as well in doubles.

In those two matches, the Patriots’ duo of Nathan Kato and Paul Szilard defeated Mount Si’s Stephen Salmon and Nick Schwarzmiller 6-2, 6-4, ending the season for Salmon and Schwarzmiller. Parker Sjolander and Mike Isabella of Liberty bounced Mount Si’s Kyle Tjossem and Scott Paophavihanh 6-1, 6-3, also ending that Wildcat pair’s season.

Wilson and Aldrich went to the Kingco tournament at Issaquah High School Oct. 21, but both seniors saw their seasons, and high-school careers, come to a quick end. Wilson fell to Issaquah’s Joe Paxton 6-1, 2-6, 4-6, then in the first loser bracket match fell to Bellevue’s Johnny Hwang 1-6, 6-3, 1-6.

Aldrich was shutout 0-6, 0-6 in his first-round match against Mercer Island’s Chris Bailey, and then was bounced by Interlake’s Skyy Le 4-6, 0-6 in the loser-out match. Aldrich competed in most of the second match using a borrowed racquet after his racquet broke.

“The first serve [Le] made on me, I don’t know, I tried to give it a good return back and everything. I guess I swung a little too hard and broke my racquet, just one of the strings popped loose and broke on me and I had to get coach’s [Gary Olson] racquet and use that for the rest of the match,” Aldrich said.

Wildcat coach Olson, in an e-mail to the Valley Record, praised his two seniors. “Both Bryce [Wilson] and Derek [Aldrich] are super competitors and they both have experienced some amazing improvement over the past few years,” Olson said. “They were both captains of the team this season and have helped make it one of the most enjoyable seasons for the whole team, including the coach.”

Olson added that while he will miss his team’s senior leadership, he is looking forward to a great season next year. “We are definitely going to miss the seven varsity seniors next year, but it’s great to have so many sophomores on the team as a whole. Hopefully, they’ll all continue to play their remaining years in high school,” Olson said.