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QuickTake:
The doubles duo of Ellie Cho and Ellie Park overcame familiar rivals from Sheldon in the final.
The South Eugene High School girls tennis team won the 6A state championship Saturday, May 23, at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton, scoring 12.5 points in the tournament.
Westview was second, with 12 points, and South Medford and Sunset tied for third, with 11. Sheldon tied for sixth with three other teams, scoring 8 points.
It was the first state championship for South Eugene’s girls.
Ten of South’s points came from the doubles team of Ellie Cho and Ellie Park, who defeated the Sheldon team of Alyssa Piquette and Hayden Kearney in the final of the doubles draw, 6-3, 6-2.
Sydney Chandler won her first-round singles match, adding 2 points to the South tally. And the second doubles team of Lily Yao and Ameenah Alrahmani picked up another half point for the Axe, by advancing to the semifinals of the consolation bracket. That half-point turned out to be the margin of victory in the team format.
Cho and Park were accustomed to playing Piquette and Kearney. The two doubles teams had already met three times during the season, with Piquette and Kearney winning all three, including the district final.
“The whole season, Sheldon was the number one team in the state,” said Zach Glauber, the South coach in his second year. “I thought they were the best team by far. We were competitive in the matches, but they were just better.”
Each time South and Sheldon faced off, however, it got closer.
“Especially in the district finals,” Glauber said. “We had chances, we looked really good and we were competing, and then it just fell apart.”
Piquette and Kearney hadn’t dropped a set all season. So they found themselves in unfamiliar territory when Cho and Park took the first set Saturday. In the second set, Park served for the match, up 5-3.
“I was so stressed,” Park, a junior, said. “It was 40-15, and I double-faulted. I was like, ‘Okay, I need to make this one in,’ and I think I missed my first serve, but luckily managed to just float the second serve in somehow, and (they) missed the return, and then it was over.”
She dropped her racket and hugged the other Ellie.
“It was so surreal,” Park said. “It was such a crazy feeling. I still honestly don’t believe it.”
Park praised her partner, Cho, a senior.
“I think her best shots that day were definitely her returns,” Park said. “She had some amazing returns.”
Their coach said South had a tough run through the state tournament, beating the No. 3 seed in the quarterfinals and the No. 2 seed in the semis, before meeting their arch-rivals in the final.
“When we got to the finals, it was the best that they’ve played all season, to be honest,” Glauber said. “We just went and were playing lights out.”
He said Cho and Park, who both played singles last year, are “huge hitters from the baseline” and can dictate points from there.
“As a doubles team, it was learning how to be aggressive at the net, how to put away volleys,” he said.
South had some help in the team contest from another Southwest Conference team, South Medford, whose Alexis Uschold won the singles draw, beating Westview’s Nikhitha Suresh, and holding Suresh to only 8 points.
The Eugene tennis community turned up in force to cheer for the local players. Glauber, who played tennis at South and graduated in 2010 is now an educational assistant at Adams Elementary School, in addition to coaching. He still plays frequently at the YMCA.
“We actually had some people who play at the Y come out and watch the matches, and they were part of our cheering squad,” he said. “It was awesome. They were loud and we could definitely feel the support.”
Marist dominates girls 4A/3A/2A/1A
Let by junior Whitney Hedden, who was the singles champion in the 4A/3A/2A/1A division, Marist Catholic girls won the team title with 28 points over Catlin Gabel (19) and St. Mary’s of Medford (15.5).
The Marist boys finished in fourth place in the team competition. Oregon Episcopal was the team winner.
Complete results are here.
