Thomas Jefferson’s girls tennis team is off to a good start after defeating Puyallup 4-1 in the season opener on Tuesday.

There were strong performances by the team all around, including in the one match they lost.

Crystal Lee and Makaylie Moore dominated their doubles match against Puyallup’s Jordan Kim and Miranda Gooler, winning in straight sets 6-0, 6-2.

Lee and Moore cruised in the first set, allowing little scoring for the Puyallup duo in each game. The second set proved a little more difficult as Kim and Gooler found their groove, but they were still no match for the talented Jefferson pair.

Both Moore and Lee have been dealing with ailments recently.

Moore, a a junior and also a soccer player committed to play for BYU, recently had shoulder surgery and is just getting back into playing sports. Currently she can only serve underhanded, but it didn’t slow down her play much.

Lee had a much more recent and unexpected injury as tryouts came about.

“The Saturday before tryouts started, Crystal got spiked in the face by a cleat and lost three teeth,” said Jefferson head coach Andrew Buchan. “So my number one player came to practice with a mask on and had to sit out.”

Buchan believes the Lee and Moore team will be one of the toughest in the state this year. Last season, Lee finished fifth in the state tournament alongside Rileigh Qualls.

Jefferson also had a strong showing from freshman Ally Peterson in the top singles match.

Peterson defeated Puyallup’s Courtney Citron in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0.

There is a chance that Peterson may move to a doubles team later in the season, but for now she’s the team’s top singles player.

While both she and coach Buchan were happy with her performance, they both acknowledged that the competition is only going to get stiffer in the South Puget Sound League.

“She gonna be challenged,” Buchan said. “We’ve got Avery Liening in our league and we’ve got Megan Hagerty in the [SPSL] South. So she’s going to have some really good people to play.”

Liening, the top singles player for Todd Beamer, finished eighth in state last season. Hagerty, the top singles player for Graham-Kapowsin, was also a state tournament participant.

Puyallup’s lone win was the best match of the day, as the team of Scotney Carlson and Tessi Oyama defeated Jefferson’s Mia Rosa and Alicia Gim in the second doubles pairing.

Rosa and Gim won the first set 6-1, but Carlson and Oyama came on strong the rest of the match, wining the next two sets 6-3, 6-3.

The Puyallup duo held 4-3 leads in both of their winning sets before finally pulling away in the final two games.

Jefferson’s Erica Dillard won 6-0, 6-1 against Puyallup’s Emma Binder in the other singles match, while Ally Lee and Michelle Kim teamed up to beat Shelby Scott and Zoe Cardwell 6-2, 7-5.

“I’ve got a neat mix of veteran leadership and young, energetic, talented players,” Buchan said. “I’ve got eight girls that are solid that have a lot of varsity experience and tournament experience. The two freshmen (Peterson and Rosa) have a lot of tournament experience. They’re just going to improve every day. I think that it’s a good mix. The girls like each other. I can put lots of lineups together and they’ll get along. They’re just going to keep getting better and better.”

The Raiders had only been able to practice outside three times prior to their matches against Puyallup due to rain.

They lost 5-1 to Mountain View High School on Friday.

On Saturday they placed third out of four teams in the Mountain View tournament with 22 points. Bellarmine Prep and Mountain View tied for first with 27 points. Todd Beamer finished fourth with two points.

Jefferson is scheduled to open league play at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Curtis.

The Raiders have won 41 consecutive league matches.