YAKIMA — On Saturday and Monday, the West Valley High School (Yakima) tennis team hosted the District 6 tennis championship. Both Wenatchee and Eastmont had several breakthrough performances with both boys and girls during singles and doubles matches but only a first- or second-place finish would earn a state berth.
None had more success than Eastmont’s Elise Bickford. She entered the district tournament as the No. 1 seed for girls’ singles and left a champion. She won all four of her matches in straight sets. The first two were won without dropping a single game to her opponents.
She met Ivy Tweedy, from Yakima's West Valley, in the championship, and for a third time, she beat the No. 2 seed, only giving up three games in two sets. Her opponent’s groundstrokes had speed but Bickford matched every single one. The blazing heat and gusty winds weren’t enough to derail her championship. She also earned the No. 1 seed for the state tournament.
“Elise was unstoppable today,” said Eastmont head coach Hannah Veteto. “No matter what Tweedy did, Elise handled it.”
Lydia Riggs also performed well for Eastmont. She lost to Wenatchee’s Avery Thomas in the last league match of the regular season, and after defeating a Davis opponent in the first round of girls’ singles matches on Saturday, she met Thomas again in the second round and won, advancing to the semifinals. She lost to Tweedy in the semis and eventually finished in fourth place after beating Wenatchee’s Katelyn Murphy in the consolation bracket.
Eastmont’s Annie Kunzie lost to Tweedy in the first round but immediately beat her Eisenhower (Yakima) opponent in the first round of the consolation bracket. Her run ended in her next match against Murphy.
The Eastmont girls placed second and the boys finished sixth. The Wenatchee boys and girls each finished third overall.
Murphy was the No. 9 seed for Wenatchee and won her first-round match against Davis before she was pushed to the consolation bracket after a loss to Bickford. She made it three rounds in the consolation bracket before losing to Riggs.
Wenatchee’s Thomas was the No. 3 seed and made it past Moses Lake in the opening round before a loss in the second to RIggs sent her to the consolation bracket. There she made it two more matches before falling to West Valley.
Neither Eastmont nor Wenatchee had a girls' doubles team make state but that didn’t prevent a few from making a deep district run.
Eastmont’s No. 2 seed, Savannah Nuxoll and Sarahi Morelos lost to West Valley in the opening round, then beat Wenatchee’s Ava Kerr and Kenzie Murphy, then Moses Lake, in the consolation bracket before falling to West Valley in the quarterfinals.
Eastmont’s Kieumy Huber and Valeri McCray beat Sunnyside in the first round but then lost to a Moses Lake team in the main bracket and then the consolation bracket. Emily Suydam and Kelly Tucker lost in the first round to West Valley and then to Eisenhower in the consolation bracket.
Wenatchee’s No. 3 seed, Sienna Kaufman and Ciara Shattuck beat Moses Lake in the first round then lost to West Valley. In the consolation bracket, they beat Sunnyside, Eisenhower, and Moses Lake but lost to West Valley in the semifinals to take fourth place.
Wenatchee’s Kerr and Murphy beat Eisenhower in the first round then lost to West Valley. They fell to Eastmont’s Nuxoll and Morelos in the consolation bracket.
Some of the boys' matches nearly made the cut for state.
Wenatchee’s Kai Mueller was the No. 3 seed for the boys’ singles and finished in that standing. He beat Davis in the first round and Moses Lake in the second before losing to West Valley in the semifinals. In the consolation bracket, he beat his teammate Aidan Shattuck in the quarterfinals, beat West Valley in the semifinals but lost a close three-set finals match to another West Valley player in a tiebreaker to take third.
Shattuck, the No. 9 seed, beat Sunnyside in the first round but lost to Moses Lake in the second. He beat another Moses Lake player and Davis in the consolation bracket before falling to his teammate, Mueller, in the quarterfinals.
Eastmont’s Josh Anantatmula lost to West Valley in the first round. He beat Eisenhower then lost to Moses Lake in the consolation bracket. Braden Vaughan also lost in the first round to Eisenhower and Moses Lake in the consolation bracket.
For the boys’ doubles matches, Wenatchee’s No. 3 seed, Austin Bromiley and Benjamin Lewis beat Eastmont’s Deacon Allais and Jesus Cruz in the first round. They then lost to West Valley in the second and Davis in the consolation bracket. Everett White and Owen Tveten beat Eisenhower in the first round and lost to West Valley in the second. In the consolation bracket, they lost to another West Valley team.
Eastmont’s No. 5 seed, Britt Dickey and Gabriel Torres beat Sunnyside in the first round and lost to Moses Lake in the second. They fell to Eisenhower in the consolation bracket. Allais and Cruz lost to Wenatchee’s Bromiley and Lewis in the first round and Eisenhower in the consolation bracket.
The opening round, quarterfinals, and semifinals for the 4A state tennis tournament will begin on May 26 at The Pacific Clinic and Kamiakin High School (Kennewick) tennis courts.
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