2A TENNIS: McWilliams finishes fifth

SEATTLE — MacKenzie McWilliams had her sights set on leaving the University of Washington as a state tennis champion on Saturday.

What she didn’t foresee was the power of a freshman and the annoyance of a sore leg.

The Hockinson junior lost her first two matches of this high school season and settled for a fifth-place finish at the Class 2A state tournament played at the University of Washington’s Lloyd Nordstrom Tennis Center.

"It is really disappointing," McWilliams said. "My expectation was first place, and I wound up pretty much the same as last year."

Klahowya freshman Traci Landram beat McWilliams in straight sets in the semifinal match Saturday morning, 6-2 6-0.

Elise Rooney of Clarkston then rallied to defeat McWilliams 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the match for third place.

McWilliams finished fourth here as a sophomore, rallying through the consolation bracket after getting swept by Rooney in the 2008 quarterfinals.

The story of Saturday morning’s semifinal match was the strength of Landram, who had McWilliams on the defensive from the fifth game on. Landram won the final 11 games of the match after McWilliams opened with a 2-1 first-set lead.

Missing on more than 30 first serves put McWilliams in a tough spot.

McWilliams said she tried to match Landram’s strong serving, which led to more missed serves than she hoped. She said she had to serve aggressively to avoid giving Landram many easy serves to handle.

"She had an awesome serve," McWilliams said of Landram. "I was just trying to make sure she didn’t have the advantage there."

But Landram, who lost to Lindsey Newman of South Whidbey in the finals, took advantage of all those second serves to seize control of the match.

The third-place match started well for McWilliams. After dropping the first three games — making it 14 consecutive games lost — she won the next seven to take the first set 6-1 and a 1-0 lead in the second set.

But midway through the second set, McWilliams felt a cramp on the outside of her left leg.

"That’s never really happened to me before," she said. "It effected how much I bent on my strokes.

The leg cramp influenced the accuracy and aggressiveness of McWilliams’ game.

"It’s really frustrating not being able to do what I usually do with my strokes," she said.

Rooney took advantage by playing mistake-free tennis and winning 12 of the final 13 games to close out the match.

"It was just one of those days," McWilliams said. "I’m already looking forward to next year."