West claims 10th Alaska high school state tennis championship in another landslide

For the the tenth time for the reason that state match for Alaska highschool tennis was established in 2007, West Anchorage Excessive reigned supreme and was topped 2022 champions on the conclusion of the three-day occasion.

Solely West and South have ever claimed state titles in tennis and the Eagles had been capable of declare their fourth straight after compiling 155 workforce factors. The Wolverines got here in as a distant second with 75 factors. Together with the 2020 season the place that they had essentially the most high finishers of any workforce however no scores had been counted, the Eagles have 5 straight state titles.

“The children did nice,” West head coach Invoice Cotton mentioned. “This yr we had rather less on the high of the sport though we did so much higher there than I assumed.”

West received particular person state titles in each girls and boys doubles and got here in second in combined doubles. However the Eagles had been propelled to a different workforce championship by a powerful displaying from their great depth together with their high finishers.

Cyrus Clendaniel and Jude Cebrian received boys doubles, Eva Lief and Lillian Yang received ladies doubles, and Will Sedwick and Ava Smith got here in second in combined doubles.

“My freshman yr I didn’t even make state and final yr I acquired fifth so it’s actually cool to only get the title,” mentioned Clendaniel who has been competing in boys doubles for the previous three years.

Along with these finishers, the Eagles had 4 different pairings or people place on the state match. Leo Zimmer and Kian Flynn completed fourth in boys doubles, Lavinia Li and Lauren O’Leary got here in fourth in ladies doubles, Ryan Cebrian got here in fourth in boys singles, and Antonia Yu got here in fourth in ladies singles.

“It gave us a complete of 60 further factors which was actually the distinction between us and the opposite groups as a result of there have been loads of nice gamers on this match,” Cotton mentioned.

In his eyes essentially the most thrilling match for the Eagles within the ultimate got here within the ladies doubles division the place Lief and Younger went blow for blow with Dimond’s Meghan Spils and Delaney Fagerstrom.

“After they performed the primary time at state West received, once they performed the second time within the finals Dimond received,” Cotton mentioned. “They needed to play a 3rd time and West eked it out.”

This marked the third yr in a row {that a} pairing from West received the ladies doubles at state division with a distinct pairing annually. Cotton and his workers determined to separate up final yr’s dynamic duo of Lief and Yu in order that they may higher improve their probabilities of incomes extra workforce factors in matches and tournaments.

Cotton noticed unimaginable enchancment Yang all through the course of the season however believes she took her recreation to the following stage within the postseason.

“Ava performed nice the entire time and Lillian simply improved all yr and particularly this final week,” he mentioned.

Clendaniel and Cebrian performed a troublesome finals match in opposition to a pair of opponents who they had been very accustomed to in Dimond’s Andre Teasley and Tae Yoon. They performed one another thrice prior in shut matches during which they got here out on high. Clendaniel and Cebrian received 6-2, 7-6 in Saturday’s ultimate.

“The primary set glided by fairly simply and that second set is the place it acquired actually powerful,” Clendaniel mentioned. “It was simply level after level, didn’t know what was going to occur however we simply stored preventing by way of it.”

Clendaniel and Cebrian had been received of a number of gamers that lastly acquired over the hump and received their first title on Saturday. It was higher late than by no means for Juneau senior Katie Pikul who took house the ladies singles state championship after besting top-seeded Allya Pedalino of Service in an additional recreation.

“I misplaced the first-round match and I wasn’t even certain if I used to be going to put so it’s unimaginable,” Pikul mentioned.

She made it to state final yr however got here up in need of making the finals and positioned third. Each Pikul and Pedalino fought by way of cramps to complete the match that Pikul took in straight units.

“There have been typically I wasn’t certain if my swings had been working and I used to be like ‘that is the final match I’ll ever play in highschool’ so I’m simply going to place all the things that I’ve acquired into this match.”

The boys singles championship was one of the aggressive battles of the match as South’s Aaron Griffin and Service’s Ulysses Escobar continued their battle that has been ongoing all season. Within the ultimate, Griffin prevailed in a third-set tiebreak to take the title.