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The Canby Cougar tennis teams finished their season this past week with the Three Rivers League District tournament at the Portland Tennis Center in downtown Portland.
While neither the boys nor the girls teams had a player advance far in the single-elimination bracket, some did leave their mark. All varsity teams played in a randomly assigned bracket, with only the top six players seeded.
None of the Cougar girls won their first game in singles play, but some did damage in the consolation brackets. Isa Arredondo and Jenna McKinney all won one game on the day, with McKinney taking down Tualatin’s Skye Rowe, 8-1.
The girls’ doubles side saw similar results. Kathryn Frentress and Mallory Scott were the only Cougar girls to win their first game all day, beating St. Mary’s 6-0, 6-2. The seniors contended early but lost in their second-round game, 6-3. 6-2.
For the boys, Ignacio Alvarez carried the torch in the singles bracket, taking down Tigard’s Owen Albrecht in the first round, 6-3, 6-4 before squeaking by John Avery of West Linn, 7-6, 6-1.
Alvarez eventually ran into the No. 2 player in the league, Daniel Kaukonen of Lakeridge, to whom he fell in straight sets, 6-2 and 6-0, in the most successful Cougar performance of districts.
While Alvarez made it the farthest in the tournament, the consolation bracket was dominated by a Cougar doubles team. After losing to a Lakeridge team 6-3, 6-1, the duo of Chai Hemsi-Walters and Caden Kuehl took over. Playing in super sets, they breezed past a pair of Tualatin teams, outscoring them 16-4.
After beating West Linn 8-5, the boys took on Lakeridge’s Peter Gentry and Drew Morris for the consolation championship. Hemsi-Walters and Keuhl won, 8-5, to give Canby something to celebrate.
The final highlight of the day was an impressive comeback by Matt Tamimi and Tristan Mullins. The Cougar duo actually played that Lakeridge team of Gentry and Morris in the first round, and lost 0-6 in the first set.
From there, though, Tamimi and Mullins stormed back to win the final two sets, 6-12 and 10-3. The two were the only team to win the match after dropping the first set in the entire first round, regardless of gender — 56 games worth.
Though none of the Cougar tennis players advanced on to state, they did show flashes in one of the toughest tennis leagues in the entire state. The athletes will be back on the courts next spring as they shift to 5A Northwest Conference play.
