Email This   Larger Font      Print This   Smaller Font Advertisement   3A tennis Singles: Union’s Christina Le clinched the 3A district title with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Doubles: Columbia River’s Christine Wang and Maria Homnick won their second consecutive district title.

Thursday, May 08, 2008
By Somer Breeze Columbian Staff Writer

Christina Le once heard a valuable piece of tennis advice.

“I learned that it’s OK to be a little nervous, but don’t let it consume your game, because then you’ll lose,” the Union sophomore said.

While Le admits she still fights nerves on the court, she has them under control since she has yet to lose a match this season. Le finished 16-0 at No. 1 singles in 3A Greater St. Helens League play and won the district title Wednesday with a 6-0, 6-0 win over No. 2 seed Cindy Jewett from Kelso at the Vancouver Tennis Center.

“It was one of my goals,” said Le, who took second at districts last year. “Last year I was so close, but Natalia (Agarycheva of Prairie) was good — a better player than me.”

Columbia River’s Christine Wang and Maria Homnick won their second consecutive district doubles title with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Union’s Megan Carter and Helen Tam, a No. 3 seed.

Le, who also fell to Agarycheva at the 4A state tournament playing for Evergreen, used last year as motivation for her sophomore season.

The score of her district championship match was the same as many of Le’s scores were this season.

The sophomore never went to a third set.

“After losing to Natalia, I just wanted to get better,” Le said. “There were a lot of things that Natalia was so much better than me. I just set goals for myself.”

Le’s determination helped lead the first year Titans to a co-GSHL title with Columbia River. Even though Le dominated the regular season, she did not take districts lightly. After she got out of school Wednesday, she went home to study a tennis video before her semifinal match against River’s Lauren Wetzel, which she won 6-0, 6-4.

“She’s just so determined,” Union coach Dave Heitsch said. “She works so hard and she takes it so seriously.”

Le said she is playing tennis seven days a week, at least two hours a day. But while she is happy to have her district championship, she shares the victory with her teammates.

“Even though I won district champs, I’m really more proud of them than me because this is their first year at a new school and we weren’t really expected to win that much,” Le said.

Columbia River, which also finished 15-1, had the No. 1 and No. 2 district doubles seeds. Carter and Tam upset No. 2s Julia Green and Heidi Mettler in the semifinal match.

Wang and Homnick played singles all season for the Chieftains. Their first time playing doubles this year was at the Heritage Tournament, which they won.

“The first match we played doubles was kind of hard to switch gears, but the tournament was really good because it got us back in the doubles mode,” Homnick said.

The win was a particularly memorable one for Homnick, who is a senior. This is the final year of the Wang-Homnick duo, which finished second at state last year.

But the season is not over yet.

The Chieftains pair is looking for a state doubles title, but they are not looking past regionals, which start Wednesday in Tacoma.

“We’re taking it one match at a time,” Wang said.