After losing to Riverside earlier this season, Washington did not fair much better in the rematch as it fell 7-2 on Wednesday.
The Knights, who topped the Pam Pack 6-3 in the two teams’ first meeting of the year, were able to pull out four wins in singles play before they went 3-0 in doubles play to lock up victory.
“Both matches, the one last week and the one today, were really close,” Riverside coach Matt Mathews said. “We just were able to win some tiebreakers and it just seemed like we played the tight points better.”
That they did. During singles play the two teams had three matches that went into tiebreakers but Riverside was able to leg out two of those, which turned out to be pivotal wins.
“They were critical matches,” Washington coach Phedora Johnson said. “We really needed those in order to win today.”
Washington’s No. 1 seed Kiara Smith locked horns with Carson Peele and fought hard but would lose 5-7, 6-4 (10-4). The Pack’s No. 3 seed freshman Isabelle Mayo was able to pull out a marathon match with Sara Modlin as she won 7-7, 7-6 (10-7), but No. 5 seed Tara O’Brien could not win her lengthy battle with McKenzie Mixon as she fell 6-3, 7-6 (10-5).
“They were key matches there,” Mathews said. “If you flip flop those it might have been different.”
Washington’s No. 6 seed freshman Hannah Stevens was the only other Pack netter to get a win as she topped Kristen Davis 6-4, 7-5.
The Knights No. 2 seed Lindsay Williams defeated Mikaela Jones 6-2, 6-1, while Blake Hardison downed Sidney Harris 6-1, 6-4.
After the match, Johnson praised the effort of freshmen Mayo and Stevens.
“Hannah and Isabelle have incredible mental fortitude,” Johnson said. “They both decide that they’re going to win. They are hard workers and great competitors.”
In doubles play, Smith and Jones fell 8-3 to Peele and Modlin, Mayo and Harris lost 10-8 to Williams and Mixon and O’Brien and Stevens lost 8-3 to Hardison and Davis.
Johnson said the end result was not indicative of how good her team’s performance was on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately the score does not give and accurate representation of how hard they worked and played,” Johnson said.