It was Mountain View’s Class 4A Greater St. Helens League tennis season, so naturally, it was Mountain View’s 4A district tournament as well.
The Thunder’s Colton Reed and doubles team of Tyler Sparling and Nick Shiraishi won 4A district titles Saturday at Vancouver Tennis Center, capping Mountain View’s outstanding season on the courts after going undefeated in league play.
The Thunder came away with the team title in addition to three players who locked up berths to the 4A state tournament in May.
Reed, a junior, had to work hard to comeback in both semifinal and final matches, winning in three sets.
He first rallied from 5-0 down in the third set against Camas senior Jonathan Ho to win 6-2, 2-6, 7-5, and then in the final beat Skyview freshman Andrew Kabacy 6-4, 2-6, 6-2.
“I just didn’t want to lose,” Reed said of his comeback efforts.
It was Kabacy’s first loss this season. Kabacy and Ho will play on Monday for the district’s No. 2 seed to state.
It was an all-Mountain View doubles final as Shiraishi and Sparling faced Justin Yee and Mark Bajtay, with Shiraishi and Sparling winning 7-6 (3), 6-3.
“It was fun to compete against them, a totally different experience than at practices,” Sparling said of playing against his teammates.
“We really wanted to go for it to get to state,” said Shiraishi, who competed at 3A state last season in doubles with Reed.
Yee and Bajtay will play Union’s Zhengyi Chen and Bjorn Morfin on Monday with the winner going to state.
3A DISTRICT — Prairie’s Zack Thompkins and Columbia River’s doubles team of Owen Carlson and Nathan Crary won district titles at Green Meadows, and will move on to next week’s 3A bi-district tournament at Sprinker Tennis Center in Tacoma.
Thompkins defeated Columbia River’s Nathan Behrens in the singles final 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
Carlson and Crary posted a 6-4, 6-2 win over Prairie’s Erik Saylor and Seth Tripp for the doubles title.
Columbia River’s Nick Neathamer and doubles team of Rio Ishii and Alex Le won third-place matches to also advance to the bi-district, where five 3A state berths will be determined.
Columbia River added the district team title to its 3A GSHL regular-season title, topping Prairie 44-40.
2A DISTRICT — Dat Vo and Thanh Vo of Hudson’s Bay won won the district doubles title at Mint Valley Racquet Club, defeating Mark Morris’ Alex Wisdom and Michael Pelton 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
Vo and Vo served for the first set, but then lost five consecutive games and started the second set by losing the first two games. Six consecutive winning games got them back on track.
Vo and Vo, the 2A sub-district champions, clinched a berth to 2A state by reaching the district semifinals on Friday.
