It took all of 90 minutes for the 4A district tennis titles to be decided Saturday morning.
Not that it wasn’t unexpected being that the Camas players involved — Hailey Kerker, her sister Taryn, and Fiona Zou — are all defending state champions.
The trio took another step toward state with victories in singles and doubles at Vancouver Tennis Center.
Hailey Kerker, the two-time defending 4A state singles champion, beat Avery Fisher, also of Camas, 6-1, 6-1.
At the same time on another court, Taryn Kerker and Zou, the defending 4A state doubles champs, got past Union’s top team of Lana and Kayla Saopraseuth 7-5, 6-2.
Taryn Kerker and Zou credited Camas assistant coach Annie Sumpter for a between-sets pep talk as a key to victory.
Zou said the message was “move closer to the net.”
“They get lots of low balls back (in play), so we just had to keep playing our game,” Taryn Kerker said.
Hailey Kerker played a hard-hitting teammate in Fisher, so Kerker said the plan was to “out-outlast her.”
“I had to keep hitting crosscourt consistently and consistency is the biggest thing you need in any match,” Kerker said.
And she was consistently across the court from a teammate at district. Following a first-round bye, Kerker played Yvonne Yin of Camas in the quarterfinals on Friday, winning 6-0, 6-0. But the score wasn’t the focus.
“We were just going to have fun,” Kerker said. “We are teammates, we’re suppose to have fun.”
Yin placed third to receive a spot at the bi-district tournament on Wednesday and Thursday at Kent. Also, Camas doubles team of Chloe Liou and Angela Ye finished third to move on to bi-district where the top six placers receive berths to the state tournament.
Camas also won the team title with 54 points. Union was second with 26 and Skyview third.
