Tennis season will continue this spring for Trojans

KSS duo takes third, alternate spot to districts.

The 2007 fall sports season may be coming to a close, but it won’t be officially wrapped up until this spring with Olympic securing two entries into the 3A West Central District boys tennis tournament.

While the Olympic League tourney was in mid-October, districts and state are in the spring because of weather.

In singles action, Justin Hike, who advanced to districts last year, made it back by topping Peninsula’s Michael Lee 6-3, 6-0 after falling to Oly League champ Lance Wilhelm, also fro Peninsula, 6-2, 6-0 earlier in the tourney. Just the top two advanced.

“Justin is a strong player and I felt confident he would advance to districts,” Oly coach Don Patraw said. “He played Lance from Peninsula tough, but lost. There was a hiccup from him in the final match, but he pulled through. He’s been an ace for us all year and this was no exception.”

Joining Hike this year will be the doubles duo of Scott Lutz and Cory Smith, who had a great league tournament in upending Peninsula’s Kevin D’Olivia and Jordan Wilcox to claim the Oly League doubles title. Lutz and Smith topped Bremerton’s Eli Olson and Johnny Olwell in the title match, while the Knights later fell to Peninsula’s duo in the second-place match.

“They gained confidence through the season playing some tough matches, so when the league tourney came they raised the levels of their games and just took out the competition in straight sets,” Patraw said. “They definitely peaked at the right time.”

Theirs is interesting in that Smith was the No. 2 singles player to start the season and Lutz was the No. 3.

“But as we talked it over we knew that Justin would be our strongest contender for one of the league’s singles spots to districts and Lance Wilhelm from Peninsula would be the other,” Patraw said. “So halfway through the season I began to experiment with Cory and Scott as a doubles team. Over time they developed pretty good chemistry, with Cory especially strong from the baseline with dipping topspin shots and Scott quite strong at the net with his angled volleys.”

With months off in between now, Patraw said his guys will have to keep busy in the cold winter months, something that shouldn’t be a problem.

With districts in the spring, the key is always for players to keep practicing throughout the winter and early spring months,” Patraw said. “The best players are those who are able to keep sharp during these winter months on their own since I can’t work with them at all until 10 days before districts.”

Olympic wrapped up a solid season at the tourney, with good efforts from Dan Cho and John Fry in the singles bracket. Arturo Urquieta teammed up with Chris Campbell while Vic Parajillo and Austin Brown also made up a doubles entry.

“I was very proud of our entire team,” Patraw said. “All of the guys battled to the end. John Fry was our Ironman, playing four singles matches on the first day of play with only short breaks between the matches. Arturo Urquieta and Chris Campbell played some super matches, especially for first-year players. Chris has a huge upside for us, and I just wish Arturo wasn’t a senior.”

All in all, Patraw said 2007 was a successful year on the courts for Oly.

“We did some experimenting throughout the season in singles and doubles combinations and by the end I thought all of the guys were playing their best,” Patraw said. “Dan Cho, Arturo Urquieta and Vic Pajarillo will be graduating and greatly missed. I wish I could keep all of these guys.”

Central Kitsap

The CK double tandem of Aaron Russell and Cameron Gilman came close to advancing to districts, but fell just short at the Narrows League tournament Oct. 19 and 20.

Russell and Gilman fell in their opener to a Bellarmine combo before rebounding with back-to-back wins to advance to the consolation semifinals. They fell in a tough three-set match 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, however, to a Stadium team to see their season come to an end.

The brotherly duo of Andrew and Christopher Kim also dropped their first-round match before falling in a nail-biter 7-6 (6), 7-6 (6) to a tandem from Gig Harbor. In singles action, Arnel Hipolito took down Neil Hulbert of Stadium in 6-3 straight sets before getting blanked by South Kitsap rival Dalton Vavra in 6-0 straight sets. In consolation action, Hipolito fell to Gig Harbor’s Andrew Anderson.

Klahowya

Klahowya also advanced a doubles team to districts this spring, albeit as alternates, with Kurtis Pitcher and Jeff Jaeckel taking third place at the 2A Oly League Championships. The Eagles tandem dropped John Sudduth and Mitch Icard of Kingston to finish in third place.