LRS tennis sending athletes to state

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague tennis team had three athletes qualify for the state tournament and one athlete is eligible as an alternate. The group of four athletes travels to the 2B State Tennis Championships at the Yakima Tennis Club on May 25.

During the regional tournament on Friday and Saturday of last week, the Broncos showed why they are a team to beat. Zach Swanger is the only male player for the LRS team that qualified for the regional competition and he faced a tough line up at the tournament.

Swanger first played Travis Campbell from Freeman, losing 4-6, 1-6. The loss did not faze Swanger as he then matched up against Jeff Peterson from Chewelah and won, 7-6, 2-6, 6-3.

The last match to qualify for the state tournament was against a familiar competitor, Justin Wargo from the LaCrosse-Washtucna team.

Swanger ended up losing to Wargo, 3-6, 2-6, but qualified as an alternate to state with a forfeit over George Brambilla, a Riverside athlete.

Tracy Melville, the LRS girl’s No. 1 singles player, started the tournament with a win over Chewelah’s Naomi Miller, 6-1, 6-0. With one win under her belt, Melville played Miranda Mielke from Davenport.

Melville lost the game 6-3, 0-6, 2-6, and had one more match during the Friday portion of the tournament. Melville played Tessa Moore and won with a score 6-2, 6-0.

The true test for Melville came on Saturday when she was matched up to play Darby Pierce in the loser-out game. Pierce had beat Melville during the regular season and had placed second in the district competition. But Melville proved successful and won with a score of 6-4, 7-5.

In the girl’s doubles competition, both the LRS No. 1 and No. 2 girls’ doubles teams had qualified for regionals. Kelly Melville and Chelsey Heidenreich played as the No. 1 girls’ doubles team and Alanna Wheeler and Lindy Brown competed as the No. 2 girls’ doubles team.

Both teams lost their first round, K. Melville and Heidenreich played Colville, and Wheeler and Brown took on Lakeside. With the initial loss, both teams had to win all of the remaining matches in order to qualify for the state competition.

Unfortunately, the two LRS doubles teams had to play each other in the second round. Heidenreich and K. Melville won 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Wheeler and Brown were knocked out of the competition.

K. Melville and Heidenreich then played Chewelah’s Becka Kenney and Bethany Kofmehlm winning 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. The game served as a nail biter as the girls were down 3-5 in the second set but were able to come back and win the match.

On Saturday, the girls returned to the tournament to play in a loser-out match against Perry Hall and Lexi Webster from Reardan. The LRS girls won with a score of 7-6, 6-3.