Gsl’s Best Set For Tourney Top Boys And Girls Seeds Take Aim At State’s Elite

You are getting sleepy (backhand smash); you are getting sleepy (top-spin volley); your eyes feel heavy (attack the net) …

Dale Ruemping, the father of Ferris High’s No. 1 singles tennis player, Darcy Ruemping, just purchased some tennis hypnosis tapes for his daughter.

But the truth is, it has been Ruemping who has left her opponents in a trance this season.

With a 7-1 record, Ruemping, considered to be the top girls player in the Greater Spokane League, is making another run at the state tournament.

Before then, though, Ruemping and the rest of the GSL will take aim against some of this region’s best tennis players in Spokane’s Inland Empire High School Tennis Tournament on Friday and Saturday.

Close to 40 teams from Washington and Idaho will participate in the tournament, which is close to two decades old.

Team tournament titles will be established by combining the results of boys and girls matches.

On Friday, girls singles matches will be at Rogers, with girls doubles at Mission Park. For the boys, singles matches will be at Ferris and doubles matches will be at Hart Field. Mixed play will be at Central Valley.

Play begins on all courts at 9 a.m., and is scheduled to last until 5 p.m.

On Saturday, all events will be played at Central Valley. Play starts at 9 a.m., with the last matches scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m.

If what Darcy Ruemping says is true, the GSL should do well for itself this weekend.

“I think the competition for both boys and girls has risen,” she said.

Lewis and Clark, the defending Inland Empire team champion, will feature the mixed doubles pair of Dave Farley and Gretchen Davis. Farley and Davis won the mixed doubles championship in the tournament last year.

Another member of the Tigers tennis team who may have something to say about the outcome of the No. 1 singles championships is sophomore Spencer Piston. He is regarded as the top boy in the GSL.

Piston, 7-0, has never lost a match in nearly two seasons of GSL play.

“Coming into this season, my goal was to stay undefeated for the GSL and then to see if I could place at state,” he said.

While some athletes tend to bring out the best in their opponents, just the opposite seems to happen with Piston.

“Almost everyone I play against says that they play their worst against me,” Piston said. “I play the big points really well. Too me, tennis is mostly psychological.”

But then again, maybe the sport is mostly hypnotic.