SNOHOMISH — Marissa Johnson and Issy Koehler have been friends for years.
Now, in their senior season, they’re finally getting the opportunity to play doubles together for the Glacier Peak girls’ tennis team.
“It’s really fun because I’ve known Issy since third grade,” Johnson said Tuesday after the Grizzlies defeated the visiting Jackson Timberwolves 4-3 for the second day in a row. “She was my first friend when I moved here and we’ve been best friends since. So it’s really fun to finally get to play together.”
The victory puts Glacier Peak (9-0 Wesco 4A, 10-1 overall) two games up on second-place Jackson (7-2, 9-2) for the top spot in the league.
Like Monday the Grizzlies won one singles match, but swept the doubles as Johnson and Koehler led the way.
“They’ve played soccer together since they were six or seven years old so they’re very close-knit,” Glacier Peak coach Micah Perron said. “They just really stepped up. They’re like fire and ice. (Johnson) is just solid. She’s not too loud, she’s not too emotional. (Koehler) is kind of fiery and gets her pumped up a little bit. So they’re very fun to watch.”
Both Johnson and Koehler reached the state tournament last season with different doubles partners. Both players’ partners graduated last year so the duo finally got to pair up.
“They both played opposite sides of the court last year as one another so it just kind of made sense to put them together this year, but doubles is about chemistry,” Perron said. “A lot of best friends don’t play doubles together because they get mad at each other. But these two are just so close that they work perfectly together.”
The goal is naturally to return to the state tournament once more.
“Making it through districts is going to be a little harder this year because we only send two teams in 4A,” Koehler said. “So we have to make it through that and then go to state and hopefully make it through the first day.”
On Tuesday the Johnson-Koehler duo rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Jackson’s Niha Gaddam and Josie Ong. That was a far cry from their hard-fought 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) victory over Ong and Amelia Leong on Monday.
Unlike Glacier Peak, which rolled out the same lineup as Monday, Jackson coach Judi Montgomery switched up her lineup.
“We just wanted to see if we could pull it out,” Montgomery said. “They have very strong doubles teams and we would have a tough time competing with them even at full strength except in singles. We have a very strong singles squad.”
However, Jackson’s usual No. 3 singles player Kate Moon was away at DECA Nationals. So Tuesday Montgomery moved Leong from the top doubles pairing to the fourth singles slot and it paid off as Leong won 7-6 (8-6), 6-3 over Bex Rothschild.
But Glacier Peak earned the team victory at No. 2 singles where Katherine Geiger avenged a Monday defeat with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Arianne Reiner Tuesday.
“I’ve never played a team back-to-back before and it was kind of interesting,” Perron said. “I couldn’t be happier (with Tuesday). My girls really stepped up with their lineup changes. It was a little different than (Monday).”
Other winners included Jackson’s Maheen Jamshidpour at No. 1 singles and teammate Kailey Castro at No. 3 singles.
Glacier Peak got wins from Lauren Olsen and Sara Major at No. 2 doubles, and McKenna Kelly and Hailey Miller at No. 3 doubles.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
