Tennis season is winding down, but that doesn’t mean Thomas Jefferson is doing the same: the Raiders picked up a 4-1 victory over Todd Beamer on Monday to win the league title.
It’s the 47th consecutive league win for the Raiders’ girls.
Jefferson scored wins in all three doubles matches and in the second singles match.
“We were a little shorthanded against Todd Beamer with Crystal Lee being out of town, Makaylie Moore tearing her ACL and out for the year, and Ally Lee getting into a car accident just before the match,” Jefferson head coach Andrew Buchan said in a email. “So the remaining players had to step up against a well-coached Todd Beamer team.”
With the absence of Crystal Lee, who has been the top doubles player for the Raiders, freshman Mia Rosa and sophomore Michelle Kim filled in perfectly in the top roll. They cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Beamer’s Jill Ory and Allie Avaiusini.
The duo has already picked up a couple of wins this season.
A change had to be made for the second doubles team because of Ally Lee’s car accident. She was uninjured in the accident.
In her stead, Jamie Grall teamed up with Alicia Gim to pick up a 6-1, 6-2 win over Beamer’s Sydney Nash and Izzy Pajares. Nash and Pajeres briefly tied the second set at 2-2, but the rest was all Grall and Gim. It was Grall’s first win in a league varsity match this season.
Violetta Pakhnyuk and Maya Frame were able to complete the sweep of doubles matches for Jefferson. They took down Beamer’s Meleika Andrike and Amanda Fox 6-1, 6-0.
The top singles match was a showdown between Beamer star player Avery Liening and Jefferson’s standout freshman Ally Peterson. The two previously met at the Mountain View Tournament on March 19, when Peterson was victorious.
This time it was Liening’s day as she took the match 6-3, 6-1 to give the Titans their sole point for the day. She continues to be one of the top singles player in the South Puget Sound League.
“Avery Liening played a tremendous match at number one singles for Todd Beamer, and her experience just proved too much for freshman Ally Peterson,” Buchan said.
The other singles match between Jefferson’s Erica Dillard and Beamer’s Nicole Lim was the only match to go the full three sets. It was Dillard who was victorious 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 when the back-and-forth, two-and-a-half hour match ended.
Jefferson (10-2, 6-0) clinched the SPSL Central title with two more league matches to go. While Curtis (8-2, 4-2) only trails them by two games, they have already beaten the Vikings twice.
The Raiders return to action Friday at home against Federal Way at 3 p.m. They finish the regular season against Decatur at 3 p.m. on Tuesday at Decatur High School.
Beamer (3-7, 3-3) also has two matches left to finish out the season. They defeated Federal Way 4-1 on Wednesday. They face Decatur at 3:30 p.m. at Saghalie today and will close out the season against Curtis at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
