Scots get even with Mavericks

SHORELINE — As the regular season winds down, the Shorecrest boys tennis team is sizing up its competition for the fast approaching postseason tournaments.

Shorecrest, Lynnwood and Meadowdale will square off two weeks from now to determine the league’s singles and doubles berths to the Northwest District 3A tournaments.

While Lynnwood is capable of pulling off an upset or two, Scots coach Jeff Allen expects Shorecrest and Meadowdale will wrangle over most of the district bids.

Both teams brought 6-5 Western Conference South Division records into their second meeting of the season Monday afternoon at Shorecrest High School.

But with the Scots clinging to a 3-1 advantage, a series of scattered rain showers ended the day’s action. Shorecrest picked up two more wins when the match resumed Tuesday for a key 5-2 victory.

“We lost to Meadowdale 4-3 the last time and it was real close,” Allen said. “This one is a big one.”

Allen pointed out that several of Shorecrest’s losses have been by slim margins, even if the team score suggested otherwise.

“We’ve lost a lot of close matches,” Allen said. “Even ones that didn’t look close were close all the way. We just haven’t beaten the tough teams. We’ve beaten the OK teams, but we need to beat a real tough team.”

Experience and confidence have been the decisive factors in Shorecrest’s narrow defeats.

“Three of our top singles players are underclassmen, so a little bit of it is maturity,” Allen said. “We’re as tough as the top teams, but they’re used to winning and that’s a big thing, going on the court knowing you can win matches.”

Winners of four straight, the Scots close out the season against three teams ahead of them in the league standings — Kamiak, Edmonds-Woodway and Shorewood.

At the start of the week, Allen was hopeful the Scots could claim three of their final five matches.

“That’s going to be a challenge for us,” Allen said. “If we win three, we’ll end up with a winning record. That’s our goal.”