No Mistake About It: Fong Rules

Now it can be said that Mead’s Amy Fong is the girls singles champion of Inland Empire Tennis Tournament.

These pages erroneously reported during the week that Fong was the defending champ. The title actually belonged to University’s Leslie Whitten.

But in the tourney’s 51st edition on Saturday at Central Valley, there was nothing erroneous about the way the Mead senior defeated Kamiakin’s Katherine Martin, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4.

Martin defeated Whitten in the semifinals 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 to advance.

Martin defeated Fong last month in three sets at the TriCities Invitational. This time, Fong was up to the task.

“She (Fong) was just extremely consistent,” said Mead girls coach Al Rettman. “Amy is playing the best tennis of her career right now. She’s more focused and more consistent than she’s ever been.”

Amy tends to agree.

“I’ve been playing well,” Fong said. “I think I’m playing smarter. I’ve been working on knowing what shots to make and when, and where to put the ball in certain situations.

“I’ve also tried to play more aggressive and consistent tennis. Everything is starting to come together.”

Fong’s win was more impressive when considering her grueling schedule last week. Saturday marked her sixth consecutive day of tennis.

The Greater Spokane League held matches Monday through Thursday (two were makeups because of bad weather) and the tournament began Friday. Saturday’s championship match was her ninth of the week.

Also at the tournament, Mead’s boys and girls won the overall team title for the second consecutive season with a total of 67 points.

“I was impressed with the way we won this,” said Bill Wagstaff, the Panthers boys coach. “We by no means dominated this tournament.

The next highest GSL finisher was U-Hi with 40 points.

Helping out the Titans was Whitten, who finished in third place in girls singles play with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Theresa Madson of Moses Lake.

In girls doubles, U-Hi’s Emily Stuenkel and Nicole Destefano beat West Valley (Yakima’s) Libby Marble and Sarah Therrians 6-1, 5-7, 6-3.

In mixed doubles, Ferris’ Josh Dyck and K.C. Richards beat Jeremy Bach and Sabrina Almoine of Ellensburg 6-2, 6-4. For third and fourth, Mike Crumb and Jenn League of Gonzaga Prep beat Lewis and Clark’s Ben Maixner and Betsy Querna 7-5, 6-3.

In boys singles, Jon Grueber of Ellensburg successfully defended his title with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Mead’s Ryan Moran. In boys doubles, Mead’s Eric Donovan and Brett Kalser beat Tyler Kempton and Andy King of West Valley (Yakima) 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

, DataTimes