LRS tennis sends eight on to regionals

The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague tennis team had 11 athletes travel to Mount Spokane on Thursday and Friday to compete in the district tournament.

Eight Bronco athletes qualified to compete at the regional tournament on May 16-17 at West Valley High School.

Kelly Melville and Alanna Wheeler finished in the top spot for the Broncos when they placed first in the tournament in the girls’ doubles competition.

The duo had a bye in the first round of the tournament, and moved on to play Odessa-Harrington’s number one doubles team.

Melville and Wheeler defeated OH before moving on to play Reardan’s doubles team in the finals. The girls secured the first place finish by defeating Reardan and maintaining an unblemished record at the district tournament.

In the singles contest, Tracy Melville faced Minisha Singha from St. George’s in the first round, and earned her first win of the tournament. Melville continued on to battle and eventually won the second round contest against Cydnee Kieffer.

The two wins moved Melville into the finals match where she faced league rival Darby Pierce from St. George’s. Pierce took the first place title from Melville, who earned second place in the tournament and qualified for the regional tournament.

Rachel Barrus and Kymberlee Webb qualified for the district tournament during the Seconds Tournament in Ritzville on May 3. The team continued to have outstanding success as they moved on to qualify for regionals as the number three seeded team from the district.

Barrus and Webb began the district tournament by defeating Davenport in the first round before continuing on to secure a win against LaCrosse-Washtucna. The Bronco duo lost to Reardan’s number one doubles team in the semi-finals, moving them into the third and fourth contest against LW. The LW team forfeited the match due to an athlete having heat exhaustion issues.

Lindy Brown started with two successful matches in the district tournament, winning her second match against Lura Potter, the number one singles player for LW. Brown suffered her first loss of the tournament to Pierce in the third match of the district competition.

In the qualifying match for regionals on the second day, Brown faced LW athlete Brooklynn Hostetler. During the match, Brown suffered a major asthma attack and heat exhaustion issue, causing her to default the match and miss qualifying for regionals.

Carissa Peavey qualified for the district tournament during the Seconds Tournament two weeks ago. Peavey won her first match at the district contest against a Davenport athletes but lost to Pierce and a Reardan athlete in her final match, eliminating her chance to continue to the regional tournament.

On the boys’ side of the Broncos team, the first year doubles team of Alex Wheeler and Kyle Canaday took home a third place finish at the tournament. Both of the Bronco athletes are sophomores, and Canaday is competing in his first year as a tennis athlete. The early success for the duo shows great promise for their future as Broncos tennis athletes, and head coach Liz Melville is impressed by their successful season.

Wheeler and Canaday won the first match of the tournament, but faced a tough battle against St. George’s number two doubles team in the second round, which resulted in a loss.

The duo battled back to defeat a tough Wilbur-Creston team before beating Reardan to earn the third place seed.

In the boys’ singles contest, Zach Swanger faced a hard line-up of athletes at the tournament, but eventually earned a trip to the regional tournament as the fourth seed. Swanger played Mark Hay from St. George’s in the first round, and lost the match to Hay who ended the tournament as the second place singles player.

Swanger faced Davenport’s Jerod Regan in the second round, a match Swanger had to win to qualify for regionals. Swanger defeated Regan 7-6, 6-1, before facing Max Mielke and losing the match to earn fourth place.

Justin Templin battled at the tournament but missed qualifying for the regional tournament after losing matches to Hay and Regan.

Templin won his first match at the district tournament in a long, grueling three-set match against a player from Wilbur-Creston.

The eight athletes qualifying for the regional tournament are Kelly Melville, Alanna Wheeler, Tracy Melville, Rachel Barrus, Kymberlee Webb, Zach Swanger, Kyle Canaday and Alex Wheeler.

The regional tournament begins at West Valley High School in Spokane on Friday, May 17, with winners continuing on to the state tournament the following week in Yakima.