SNOHOMISH — After a 5-2 loss to Lynden on Wednesday that snapped the Snohomish girls tennis team’s six-match win streak and handed them their first loss of the season, the Panthers regrouped Friday afternoon to beat Wesco 3A North competitors, Stanwood, 5-2.
Snohomish (SNO) swept all the singles and secured one of the doubles matches.
“Stanwood is a fantastic program. They always have been. … (And) we knew early on this was going to be a tough match,” Panthers head coach Joel Boyer said. “Wednesday was a healthy wake-up call for us. … Playing a team like Stanwood is great because they make you pay when you don’t hit things really well.”
Snohomish’s Emerson Norris won her singles match 6-2, 6-1 against Stanwood’s Alyssa Carlson. Hannah Wells (SNO) beat Halle Femrite 6-1, 6-1. Mak Dauer (SNO) bageled Emmy Monty in the first set and won 6-1 in the second. And Morgan Gibson (SNO) lost 4-6 to Ryann Reep in the first set but rallied back 6-2 in the second and bageled Reep in the third.
“I get really psyched out in my head. It’s my first year on varsity. It’s really a mental thing,” Gibson said. “I keep losing a lot of my first sets and then going to tiebreakers (in the) third round.
“I was taken aback when (Boyer) told me (I’d be playing a full third set) because we never ever played third sets,” she continued. “I jumped backwards, and I went, ‘No way. You have to be lying.’ And then he said, ‘But look at (Reep). She’s defeated, and exhausted.’ And I said, ‘I’m exhausted.’ And he said, ‘Yeah, but you’re not defeated.’ And he said keep jumping around, keep singing your song … keep exuding energy and keep the energy high (to) show (Reep) that you’re not defeated.”
After dropping two match points, Val Landa-Contreras and Lucy Danitschek (SNO) secured the only doubles victory for Snohomish, winning 7-5, 7-6 (8-6) against Amanda Steenberg and Mallory Larsen.
Stanwood’s first doubles team, Tessi Mumbuluma and Alissa Rautenberg, topped Bri Ulrich and Lauren Ellis 6-3, 6-3. The Spartans’ second doubles team, Mylee LaComb and Averie Stunz, dominated Brooklyn Lewis and Frankie Jones 6-1, 6-1.
“(Stanwood) is so strong at No. 1 doubles,” Boyer said. “We knew it was strength versus strength. … Props to Tessi and Alissa. They’re fantastic players. … They played us the way we play often, which is attack and make people feel uncomfortable.”
Snohomish improved to 7-1 overall and 2-0 in league play, and Stanwood dropped to 4-2, 0-1.
“It was a good matchup for us,” Stanwood head coach Sean Cunningham said. “Even though we didn’t get the third doubles, I really feel like our doubles has become our strength. We’ve got a lot of balance this year, and we knew that we had a chance here. … With Tessi and Alissa in particular, they’re playing really well. They beat Shorewood and Snohomish this week, (which) are big signature wins for them.”
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