Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Rain puts prep tennis showdown on hold

WRHS, Community School

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It will be a fitting Sun Valley stage for a showdown between two of Idaho’s best high school tennis programs.

Wednesday’s 6-6 tie in Hailey followed by Monday’s rain-shortened meet in Ketchum has caused the prep tennis showdown between The Community School and Wood River High School to be settled where it should be—on the stage of this weekend’s Fourth District tourney in Sun Valley.

Defending district girls’ singles champ Amy Alexander will lead the Cutthroats into this weekend’s district tennis tournament in Sun Valley. Express photo by David N. Seelig

 

The Wolverines were leading 5-4 with three matches to go Monday at Warm Springs Tennis Club when coaches Mark Scribner of The Community School and John Radford of Wood River agreed to suspend play due to wet tennis courts.

"Going into the district tournament, we didn’t need any injuries," said Scribner. "It was extremely tight between the two teams, but Wood River wasn’t going to lose. I commend Wood River. They looked tough, even though I thought our team would be stronger getting Luke Fostvedt back."

Fostvedt, a senior and returning state boys’ doubles player, teamed with freshman Mandy Alexander to give the Cutthroats their only doubles victory Monday, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 over Danny Gariepy and Whitney DeBree in #1 mixed doubles at Warm Springs.

Wood River won all three #2 doubles matches—Gavin Kastner and Kira Gardner 6-2, 6-3 over J.P. McNeal and Blake Ellis in mixed; Jackie Safran and Devon Bunce 6-1, 6-2 over Lily Mott and Ginna Anderson in girls; and Hunter Storey and Frank Fiaschetti 5-7, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 over Ben Roth and Tyler Chandler in boys’ doubles.

Not finished because of Monday’s rain were #1 boys’ doubles (Christian Cairncross-Wes Flanigan of CS vs. Dao Okamoto-Thomas Phelan of WR) and #1 girls’ doubles (Joanie Baumgardner-McKenzie Hart of CS vs. Abby Fairman-Ellie France of WR).

The Community School’s dominating boys’ singles tandem of #1 Tyler Martin (6-0, 6-0) and #2 Scooter Sabel (6-1, 6-0) downed Wood River’s Kyle Niedrich and Estaban Vega. Not finished was #3 boys’ singles between Kyle Koski of The Community School and Whit Harbaugh, Wood River.

In #1 girls’ singles, senior Amy Alexander rallied past Wood River sophomore Hadley DeBree 2-6, 6-1, 6-2. But Wood River won #2 and #3 girls’ singles—Amanda Smith 6-2, 6-3 over Caitlin Cairncross and Ashley Prior 6-1, 6-0 over Coco Knudson.

Summing up, the district outcome should be tighter than last year.

Last May at Sun Valley, the Cutthroats won their sixth straight district championship by a 125-97 margin over Wood River. The only returning district champion in the same event is Amy Alexander in girls’ singles. The Cutthroats swept singles last year.

Action starts Friday, May 14 at 10 a.m. and continues through Saturday afternoon. Other teams competing are Declo, Gooding and Sugar-Salem, plus one player from Snake River.

Qualifying for the State 3A tennis tournament May 21-22 in Boise will be the top five finishers in each event.

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