TACOMA — Now that North Kitsap’s Jordan Prince has eased his worries about advancing to the West Central District tennis tournament, he’ll have plenty of time to prepare.

Prince, along with the doubles combo of Evan Faulk and Kevin Joines, earned their way into the 4A West Central District 3 tennis tournament, and ultimately, a shot at the state competition.

“It feels great,” Prince said. “I’m really excited to go to districts.”

The Narrows League invaded the University of Puget Sound over the weekend, with almost 50 high schoolers fighting for a trip to districts.

The Vikings sent three doubles squads and two individuals to the tourney. In the tournament’s opening round on Friday, the Vikes were already down to three players.

Jordan Tucker, who beat Port Angeles’ Jack Larson, a No. 4 seed, in the preliminary tourney, fell to Bellarmine’s Zach Hamilton 6-4, 6-2 in the opener. Tucker then lost to Gig Harbor’s Kyle Crane in a hard fought contest, 7-6, 6-7, 6-3 in an elimination match.

The doubles duo of Eric Edgren and Joe McBurney had a tough task, taking on eventual Narrows League champions Brian McPhee and Simon Meske of Bellarmine, 6-0, 6-1. The duo then fell out of the tournament 7-6, 6-1, thanks to a tough Stadium pairing.

Ben Kelch and Micah Drury faced a similar fate, falling to Cameron and Henry Williams of Olympia, 6-0, 6-3, before another Olympia team, Steve Kelson and Preetam Talukdar, won in another close battle, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Prince didn’t have too many problems in his opener, taking out Capital freshman David Golden 6-4, 6-0. He then fell to a tough opponent in Olympia’s Ken Stormans, who would eventually take third, 7-5, 6-2. Prince rebounded in consolation, however, dropping Olympic’s Justin Hike 6-2, 6-2 and beating Bellarmine’s Zach Jiganti 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 to earn a No. 4 seed to this spring’s WCD tourney.

Prince said with so much time off in between now and the tournament, he’ll likely continue to play his USTA schedule, where he meets several of his prospective district competitors. In that sense, Prince said it’s not only beneficial to keep playing to keep active, but also to learn about his opponents.

“It’s great. It’s a great preparation for districts and hopefully state,” Prince said.

Joines and Faulk had a tough road in as well, beating Thomas and Hertiage in the opener, 6-4, 6-4. But that brought on McPhee and Meske, and after 6-0 straight sets, the NK pair found themselves in the consolation bracket, where they proceeded to dump South Kitsap’s Mike Waas and Kramer Mott 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.

In the next round, the pair beat out an Olympia team. The consolation final started off well, with Joines and Faulk opening up with a 6-1 win. But they would drop straight 6-1, 6-1 sets to Bellarmine’s Spencer Politeo and John Andrew to go into the WCD as the No. 6 seed.

McPhee and Meske won the doubles title, while Olympia’s Eric DeBusschere won the singles championship.

Prince, who said he looks forward to the higher level of competition, said the Narrows tourney helped him identify some aspects of his game he’d like to improve on.

“I’ve got to work on my return game,” Prince said. “One thing I really need to work on is if someone has a flat serve, then I’m done. I’d like to keep my serve, get it in a high percentage.”

The West Central District 3 tourney will take place at the end of the spring at UPS.