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Moving up a classification has not put a crimp in the play of Kamiakin's Ali Welch and Demie Warner.
Last year's 3A state doubles champions are now at the 4A level, and if Friday's play at the state tennis tournament at Kamiakin High School is any indication of things to come, they are good things.
The Kamiakin juniors breezed through their first-round and quarterfinal matches to earn a semifinal date at 8:30 a.m. today with Wenatchee's Amy Scheumann and Tatiana Wood, who beat Warner and Welch at districts.
"We play better against better teams," Welch said. "You just have to play point by point and play the moment."
The doubles semifinals and consolation matches will begin at 8:30 a.m. today at Kamiakin, while the singles matches, also at 8:30 a.m., are at Tri-City Court Club. All finals will be at Court Club, with the doubles at noon and the singles at 1:30 p.m.
Warner and Welch opened play Friday morning with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Kaylyn Brown and Emily Sullivan of Puyallup, and followed with a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing of Eastlake's Melanie Wang and Chelsa Tsujii in the quarterfinals.
"I thought they were better than the first team we played," Warner said of their quarterfinal opponents. "Our crowd really helped us; it's nice to see that support."
Also in the semifinals are Britta and Katijene Stime of Mead, who had to battle through a three-set opening match with Anna Chatilo Mackenzie Bang of Shorewood before cruising through the quarterfinals.
"The tough matches will help us later," Britta said. "We played our game the first and third sets. The second, we had had unforced errors and they picked up their game."
The Richland boys have Troy Zuroske in the singles bracket at Court Club and the doubles team of Chris Shallman and Taylor Dickey still alive. But only Zuroske made it through to the semifinals as Shallman and Dickey lost a three-set quarterfinal match to Tristan Reni and Scott McConnell of Shorewood.
Zuroske beat Mike Blevins of Mountain View 6-4, 6-4 in the first round, then needed a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (4) come-from-behind effort to beat Jackson's Michael Chamerski to reach the semifinals. The Richland junior will play Matt Overland of Kentridge at 8:30 a.m. today.
Shallman and Dickey advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-6 (10), 6-4 victory over Frank Pavia and Wilson Platt of Garfield in the first round.
In the quarters, Reni and McConnell surprised themselves with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Shallman and Dickey.
"I didn't think we'd win that last match," Reni said. "These guys were really great. Shallman is really strong and Dickey has great ground strokes."
The victory also helped heal an old wound for Reni, who in the summer of 2003, was on the Richmond Little League team that lost to Richland in the state championship game.
"We were undefeated going into the state finals and had already beaten them once," Reni said. "They beat us twice and eventually went to the Little League World Series. That was hard to watch."
Shallman and Dickey rebounded with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Connor Vordale and Josh Garber of Woodinville in the consolation bracket. They best they can finish is fourth.
"It was kind of surprising to lose," Dickey said. "We just kind of fell apart and we weren't playing that smart. We had a lot of unforced errors in the third. We could have played it safer."
3A
VANCOUVER -- Hanford's doubles team of Jake Knox and Curtis Lan reached today's semifinals at the Vancouver Tennis Complex with ease.
The Hanford duo opened with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Luke Pritchard and Bryan Wren of Prairie, then made quick work of Seattle Prep's Taylor Hunt and Garret Vincent, 6-2, 6-4, to advance.
In singles action, freshman Luke Thompson won his opening match 6-0, 6-1 over Capital's Anthony Litchfield, but dropped a three-set quarterfinal match to James Russell of Juanita, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
Thompson won his consolation match and can finish as high as fourth.
The Hanford girls doubles team of Cassandra Dicken and Becky Sharpe lost in the consolation quarterfinals, as did singles player Sam Merry.
2A
SEATTLE -- Grandview's Rogi Fajard lost his first match of the day at Nordstrom Tennis Center, but won two consolation matches to stay alive, including a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Tai Pham of Interlake. Fajard can finish as high as fourth.
1A/2B/1B
YAKIMA -- All of the Mid-Columbia entrants were bounced from action at the Yakima Tennis Club except for Connell's girls doubles team of Lauren Booker and Anali Galvez, who rebounded from a first-round loss to win a pair of matches in the consolation bracket.
Booker and Galvez, who can finish as high as fourth, will play Kylee Bellamy and Ryell Carley of Goldendale today.
