T-birds, T-wolves tie

All was not lost when Jackson snapped the Shorewood boys tennis team’s 58-match winning streak earlier this month.

The Thunderbirds regrouped from their first league defeat in three seasons to finish 15-1 and tie the Timberwolves for the Western Conference 4A South Division title.

Shorewood coach Corliss Liekkio said her players were dismayed but not distracted by the narrow 4-3 loss to the T-wolves, who claimed three of the four singles matches.

“It took a little of the pressure off us,” Liekkio said. “The kids are fine. They’re looking forward to seeing Jackson again in the postseason.”

The T-birds landed three seeds for this week’s Wesco 4A South Division tournaments. Matches began Wednesday and run through tomorrow at Harbor Square Athletic Club in downtown Edmonds.

Sophomore Nomar Mapalo, a state qualifier in 2002, is seeded second in singles and junior Sachin Narvekar is fourth. Jackson’s Mike Reading is the top singles seed and Edmonds-Woodway’s Reid Fenning is third.

Shorewood’s Steve McCall and Scott Bourne received a No. 1 seed in doubles. The juniors took second at last year’s league and district tournaments and are undefeated this season.

“They’re looking forward to some tough competition,” Liekkio said. “With a lot of the league’s top singles players teaming up, there’s going to be a lot of good doubles teams.”

The top four finishers in both the singles and doubles draws advance to next week’s Northwest District 4A championships at the University of Washington.

Shorecrest, Lynnwood and Meadowdale — the league’s 3A schools — will take part in separate singles and doubles tournaments this week, with the top three finishers receiving Northwest District 3A berths.