Tennis team stumbles against Prep

At the north end of the No. 1 singles court, Spartan senior Sam Marshall was shaking his head in disgust and muttering self-directed imprecations under his breath.

At the south end of the No. 1 doubles court, Maggie Fick and Amanda Allender were all smiles and high-fives and congeniality, flowering their Seattle Prep opponents with “good job” and “nice shot.”

But even with such markedly different matches and mentalities, the end results were the same: Prep soundly shut down the Spartans, 10-1.

“They’re the best team in the league,” said head tennis coach Mike Anderson, “and will probably be a good threat for a shot at the boys state championship with Brett Blasingame.”

The Panthers’ top men’s player steamrolled Marshall, the top Spartan, 6-0, 6-0.

Plagued with equipment problems that forced him to use unfamiliar raquets, Marshall was visibly frustrated with his play early in the first set.

“I think Sam was trying to make things happen too quickly with points -- going for winners, and that led to errors,” Anderson said.

Fick and Allender fared a little better against Seattle Prep’s Caitlin O’Keefe and Casey Pleas, taking the first set 6-4. But strong Panther play at the net forced Spartan errors, and the No. 1 doubles team dropped the final two sets 6-4, 6-2.

“We needed to close it out after the first set,” said Fick. “They really came back strong.”

Sophomore Whitney Cheng provided the lone point for the Bainbridge team, confidently taking care of Prep’s Kara Mooney 6-3, 6-3.

“That was a big win,” Anderson said. “She played a really complete match, with nice intelligent points against Kara.”

Anderson hopes to get a full week of practice in to get the team back to basics before the upcoming Metro League

individual tournament begins.

“It’s really been a flurry of matches and inconsistant weather lately. We’ve got to get some things straightened out.”

The Spartans face O’Dea/Holy Names today before participating in the Viking Invitation at North Kitsap High School this weekend.

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