Schwab, Stime win at doubles

VANCOUVER – Six-foot Katrina Schwab and Britta Stime (5-2) obviously don’t make a great dance team, but they are the best 4A girls doubles team in the state.

The Mead pair won an all-GSL final over Lewis and Clark’s Erica Ehlo and Lyndi Seidensticker at the State 4A tennis championships Saturday at Vancouver Tennis Center.

Unlike convincing Panthers wins when these teams met in the GSL and regional finals, the state final was a tight match, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3.

Ehlo and Seidensticker won a tiebreaker for the first set, which featured several multiple-deuce games and four service breaks.

“They fought hard,” Schwab said of the LC duo. “Their game was on.”

Ehlo is a 5-10 volleyball player and Seidensticker is a 6-0 basketball star for the Tigers, so they cover a lot of space at the net.

“They’re intimidating,” Schwab said, “To have them up there put a lot of pressure on us. You have to hit a really good lob to get it over them.”

Which Schwab and Stime began to do in the second set, and they recovered to win the final two sets.

Schwab, a junior, and Stime, a sophomore, placed sixth a year ago.

“We really improved and it feels great,” Stime said. “We work as a team a lot better this year.”

It also took three sets for the Panthers to make the final, as they beat Lake Washington’s Shannon and Jillian Adams in the morning semifinal 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.

Ehlo and Seidensticker beat Stanwood’s Megan Amundson and Dani Fullwiler in straight sets in their semifinal and helped LC win the girls team championship.

The Tigers were boosted by a fourth-place finish in singles by senior Elise Otto.

“That feels amazing,” Ehlo said of the team title. “It’s an accomplishment that we really didn’t plan on.”

Otto needed three sets to beat Ferris junior Katie Griffith in the consolation semis, then beat Central Kitsap’s Aya Sugimoto in straight sets to earn fourth.

Sugimoto eliminated Gonzaga Prep’s Anna Lambert 7-6, 6-5 in the consolation semifinals.

Mead’s girls doubles title was enough for the Panthers to tie for second place with Prairie and Lake Washington.

In the 4A boys tournament, LC’s Chris Martin and Nick Johnson earned fourth place in doubles.

The Tigers duo beat Ferris’ John Cadagan and Kevin Satre 6-4, 7-6 in the consolation semifinals, then took care of Richland’s Elliott Martin and Chris Shallman 6-2, 6-3 in the consolation final.

Martin and Johnson won four consecutive matches after a disappointing three-set loss in their opening-round match Friday.

“After that first loss, the next four matches we picked ourselves up,” Martin said. “It’s great that we got that far.”

“Clarkston’s boys doubles duo of Ed Rooney and Kyle Servatius took home the title after defeating Sequim’s Cody Hanson and Michael Richards 6-3, 6-3 in the finals of the State 2A tournament at the Yakima Tennis Center.

The duo won all four of their matches at this year’s tournament.

In the match for fourth and sixth, Clarkston’s Ryan Lane and Dustin McConnell beat Bellingham’s Zack Garza and Tyson Clarke 6-1, 6-2.

In boys singles, Matt Erickson of Ridgefield beat Medical Lake’s Max Nelson 6-0, 6-1 in the state championship match. Nelson won all three of his matches before falling in the championship match.

In girls doubles, Pullman’s Raquel Marcelo and Ashley Beitz fell 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Sequim’s Laine Briggs and Anna Slater and took sixth.

“Sprague-Harrington’s Jamie Larmer defeated Davenport’s Mallory Mielke 6-0, 6-1 in the State 2B/1B girls singles championship at Yakima. Soon Lee of St. George’s took fourth after beating La Salle’s Kayla Long 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

In girls doubles, Reardan’s Whitney Poitra and Alicia Wilke made it to the championship match but fell to La Salle’s Katie Eschbach and Laramee Marquis 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.