Beating their Metro conference rival, the Mercer Island girls tennis team brought home the 3A state championship over the weekend, for the second year in a row.
The Islanders beat Bainbridge Island, 23-16, for the title after two days of playing in Vancouver, Wash.
The girls doubles team of Chelsea Bailey and Julia Schubach finished second in state, while Julia Zook and Kelly Crandall earned third overall. Singles player Nora Tan was fifth. For the Islander boys team, Jordan Smith finished fifth overall, and Max Franklin and Andrew Smith took second.
Tan started the tournament off by beating Sakura Porter of Evergreen 6-0, 6-3, and Alexis Filliol of West Valley 6-3, 6-3. She fell 6-3, 6-3 against Natalie Allen of Holy Names, who would go on to take second in the tournament. In the consolation bracket, Tan lost to Karin Chymcakova of North Central 0-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the girls doubles competition, Zook and Crandall beat their first opponent, J. Piboonvanggoon and Lauren Wetzel of Columbia River, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (7), before taking on Becky Sharpe and Cassandra Dicken of Hanford. The duo won that match 6-2 and 6-3 to move on to the semifinals. There they faced a familiar team of Anissa Bryant-Smith and Malia Lum from Sammamish. The Sammamish team beat Mercer Island 6-2, 6-0. Crandall and Zook faced Kate Jameson and Grace Porter, of Bainbridge, another familiar team from the district tournament. Zook and Crandall prevailed 6-1, 6-4 to take third.
Meanwhile Chelsea Bailey and Julia Schubach started the tournament with a win over Yelm’s Emma Leimback and Kedra Ball 6-1, 6-1. They found some resistance against Christina Le and Megan Carter from Union. Bailey and Schubach beat them 5-7, 6-3, 1-0 (10) to move into the semifinals. In Saturday’s semifinal match they too faced Jameson and Porter, but the Islander duo beat them 6-3, 2-6, 7-5 to earn a spot in the championship match. Here they faced Bryant-Smith and Malia Lum, who beat Baliey and Schubach 6-2, 76 (8).
In the boys competition singles player Jordan Smith started the tournament faced Mitchell Thorp of Kennedy, whom he beat 6-3, 6-0 and took on Luke Thompson of Hanford in the quarterfinals. Smith hung on to win 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (4) in that match and faced Reid deLaubenfels, from Nathan Hale, who Smith had played in the SeaKing District tournament the weekend before. deLaubenfels triumphed 6-0, 6-3, pushing Smith into the consolation bracket. There he played Taylor Hunt, another familiar face from districts. Hunt won the battle 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, giving Smith fifth place.
In the boys doubles competition Max Franklin and Andrew Smith started things off Friday with a win over Jack Li and Colin Jones from Hazen 6-0, 6-1.
They handily beat Bredan Soelling and Daniel Snyder from Everett 6-0, 6-0 in the second round and beat Aaron Farmer and Daniel Wenker of West Valley 6-2, 6-2 for a spot in the title match.
In a rematch of the district championship match, Franklin and Smith found themselves facing Andrew LaCava and Jason Bediones from Seattle Prep. The duo from Prep outlasted the Islanders 4-6, 6-2, 6-0.
