Shorewood duo claims state crown

Published 10:46 am Friday, February 29, 2008

Scott Bourne and Steve McCall’s first trip to state as doubles partners ended abruptly when McCall injured his shoulder diving for a volley in the opening round.

One year later, the Shorewood juniors expunged the memory of that early exit by capping an unbeaten season with a Class 4A state championship last weekend in Spokane.

“We thought we’d have a good shot to take it all this year,” McCall said. “But when we saw the draw, we knew it was going to be tough.”

The pair faced an arduous path to the third state tennis title in school history. In 1988 Shorewood swept the singles and doubles titles to win the 2A team championship.

Two of their first three matches went to three sets and their championship clash with Kamiakin juniors Alex Hart and Eric Otto was on the verge of going to a third set until the Thunderbirds staged a late rally.

“The field was wide open,” Shorewood coach Corliss Liekkio said. “All four of their matches could really have gone either way. It was so close.”

Bourne and McCall battled back from a 4-1 second-set deficit to defeat Hart and Otto 7-5, 7-6 (1) in a back-and-forth final May 29 at Central Valley High School.

The first set remained on serve until Shorewood broke to take a 6-5 advantage. In the second set the Thunderbirds fell in a 3-0 hole, as McCall was broken for just the third time at the tournament.

As soon as Shorewood evened the set at 4-all, rain showers forced an hour delay. Bourne and McCall later wiped out a 6-5 Kamiakin lead and took control of the tiebreaker by sweeping the first four points to finish off the Braves.

“They thought they had that second set,” Bourne said. “When we came back, it showed them we weren’t going to give it up.”

That same won’t-quit attitude helped the Thunderbirds avoid a second straight first-round collapse.

Trailing 4-0 and 5-2 in the third set to Bellarmine Prep’s Steve Hallstone and Nick Schoenfelder, Bourne and McCall stormed back for a 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory to advance to the quarterfinals.

“When we were down Steve told me, ‘It’s time to dig deep.’ I kept thinking about that and I knew we were going to turn it around,” Bourne said. “The problem wasn’t how hard we were playing. It was how much drive we had.”

With their mental game in check, the shots that had been sailing wide or deep early in the match finally started to drop for the Thunderbirds.

“We were painting the corners,” McCall said. “We seem to play better when we’re tired. Once we got that first match out of the way, we were more confident.”

Bourne and McCall dismissed Auburn-Riverside brothers Alex and Michael VanDerShelder 6-4, 6-3 in the second round to set up a semifinal encounter with Wenatchee’s Brandon DeCamp and Jared Vidano, who took fourth at state last season.

The Thunderbirds stumbled in the second set before regrouping for a 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 win over the power-serving seniors.

“They had by far the best serves at state, but I think the wind messed them up,” Bourne said. “A lot of their first serves didn’t go in.”

The turning point came with Bourne serving early in the third set.

McCall slammed face-first into the chain-link fence going after a passing shot, leaving Bourne alone momentarily. Bourne kept the rally going with a lob and McCall regained his footing in time for an overhead winner.

“If we’d lost that point, the momentum could have shifted in their favor,” Bourne said.

“Steve must have hit three dozen overheads at the tournament,” added Liekkio. “And when he hits them, they’re gone. They aren’t coming back.”

Bourne and McCall finished the year with a 28-0 record. In the fall, the duo followed up an undefeated regular season by winning Western Conference South Division and Northwest District doubles titles.

During the six-month layoff between districts and state, Bourne and McCall played occasionally. Since both are active in spring sports at Shorewood, they weren’t able to practice regularly until a few weeks prior to the tournament.

“They’re multi-sport athletes. They don’t play tennis every day,” Liekkio said. “To me, that’s the most amazing thing about all this. They were truly the underdogs.”