The Mercer Island High School tennis teams advanced 12 players to the district meet this week following a strong finish at the girls KingCo tournament last week. All six girls who qualified will be joined by the six qualifying members of the boys team from last fall.

In the singles competition, Chelsea Bailey brought home the KingCo championship while teammate Julia Zook earned third place.

Bailey beat Alaina Goesling from Bellevue in the semifinals before taking on London Lee, also from Bellevue, in the championships. Lee had beaten Zook in the semis to advance to the final match.

In the doubles arena, Michele Zemplenyi and Julia Schubach earned second place in the tournament, falling in the finals to Anissa Bryant-Swift and Malia Lum, from Sammamish. The Islanders’ second doubles team, Kelly Crandall and Erica Leong, earned third place. Crandall and Leong lost in the semis to the eventual champions.

“Things went really well for the girls,” said coach Joyce Hedlund after the first day of the tournament. “All the girls played really well.”

Also advancing after last falls tournament on the boys team for Mercer Island are: Matt Ellis, Jordan Smith, both playing singles; and Max Franklin, Andrew Smith and Matt Stofsky and Matt Sedlacek, in the doubles competition.

Hedlund said this is the first time in eight or nine years that all of Mercer Island’s qualifiers have made the SeaKing district tournament.

The SeaKing tournament began yesterday at Lower Woodland Park. The KingCo and Metro leagues will send a total of 10 entries from the boys and girls tournaments to state, held in Vancouver, Wash., May 29-30.