SNOHOMISH — Edmonds-Woodway High School senior Steven Anderson defeated his junior teammate, Nalu Akiona, 6-4, 6-3, to win the District 1 3A boys tennis title on Wednesday at Snohomish High School.
Both will compete at that Class 3A state tournament, May 23-24, 2025 in Vancouver, Wash. Shorewood teammates JD Drake and Seb Sanchez also qualified for state by finishing third and fourth, respectively.
Edmonds-Woodway junior Nalu Akiona plays in the District 1 3A tennis championships at Snohomish H.S. on Oct. 30. 2024. (Photo courtesy of Eric Akiona)
Shorewood will send another four tennis players to Vancouver in May. The Stormrays tandem of Peter Kosten and Xander Gordon won the doubles tournament, 6-0, 6-0 over Monroe’s Jacob Shafer and Myles Baumchen. The Shorewood team of Riley Boyd and Eli Sheffield finished third with a triumph over Snohomish’s Tully VanAssche and Everett Woolley. All four of those teams will compete at state in May.
Anderson, who earned a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed in the singles tournament, lost his very first set of the tournament 7-6 (10-8), but then swept six straight sets in the quarterfinal, semifinal and championship matches. Akiona, the tournament’s sixth-seed, ran through the bracket as well, sweeping three matches before running into his fellow Warrior in the championship match.
Though Sanchez lost to his teammate in the third-fourth-place match, he entered the tournament as the No. 10 seed and upset the No. 2 seed in the second round on this way to fourth place.
VanAssche and Woolley, seeded ninth, lost to top-seeded Kosten and Gordon in the second round before battling back through the double-elimination bracket to earn a state berth.
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