Lewis and Clark coach says this is his top team

Tobin Phelps has had some strong boys tennis teams over his 14 years as coach at Lewis and Clark High School.

But his 2015 team is at the top of the heap.

“From top to bottom this is the strongest team I’ve ever had,” Phelps said. “This has been an outstanding group of seniors – we graduate seven seniors off this team. Many of them made an impact on the team as freshmen.”

Luke Brittan has been the team’s No. 1 singles player so long that it’s hard to remember who preceded him atop the LC ladder.

“Luke certainly belongs in the conversation about who is the best singles player we’ve had,” the coach said. “We’ve had some outstanding players. Luke does some things better than they did; other things he doesn’t. It’s hard to compare players from different eras.”

Brittan is a win away from reaching the State 4A tournament for the fourth straight time, but his first as a singles player.

Brittan and doubles partner Jordan Strandness reached state as freshmen. As sophomores, they reached the state semifinals. Last year, they won the state doubles title.

“They’ve been just an outstanding doubles team,” Phelps said. “They both played other sports growing up. Jordan played a lot of baseball and Luke played freshman football at LC. They are very athletic, but they also have outstanding hands and do a great job getting to balls and getting them back across the net.”

This year, while Brittan faces Richland’s Trent Prussing, whom he beat to win the Inland Empire tennis tournament’s No. 1 singles title, in a winner-to-state match today at Richland High, Strandness and Kyle Fager face Richland’s Nathan Sargent and J.P. Leahy.

“Jordan has been an outstanding singles player for us as well,” Phelps said. “But he’s that special kind of doubles player who can team with just about anyone and be successful. And on top of that, he’s the nicest kid you’d ever want to meet. I can’t tell you how many times opposing parents, players or coaches have come up to me and told me how nice of a kid he is – and this is after he’s just routed their player.”

This year’s LC squad is so deep and so talented that an opposing coach said the Tigers could lose their top three singles players and still have more than enough talent to win the Greater Spokane League title.

“With this group, I think their toughest matches have all come against each other in practice,” Phelps said. “And I don’t say that to denigrate anyone else in the league. There are some very good players in this league.

“But this is just a special group.”

 

4A boys singles

Brittan faces a familiar player in Prussing in the winner-to-state match today at Richland. The two faced each other in a winner-to-state doubles match a year ago.

Brittan needed three sets to beat Prussing at the Inland Empire tournament, but Phelps said there’s a reason it took so long.

“Luke has had an abdominal injury the last three weeks and we’ve been nursing him through it,” he said. “At the Inland Empire, we had him using a modified serve that didn’t put as much strain on him.”

Phelps said he heard from his No. 1 singles player Friday night, saying he’d been working on his normal serve and felt fine afterwards.

“We’re going to let him go full speed,” the coach said. “He hasn’t used his normal serve for three weeks or so and we want him to use it. Especially looking forward to next week and the state tournament.”

 

4A girls singles

In the 4A girls regional at Richland, Central Valley’s Kyra Harames takes on Edin Snider of Pasco in a winner-to-state battle of district champions. Snider already is a two-time district champion as a sophomore after beating Tayla Jackson of Chiawana last weekend  6-1, 6-1.

Third-seeded Katie Kuka of Mead faces Jackson in a loser-out match, with the winner facing Lizzy Marcinkowski of Gonzaga Prep in a loser-out match. Finally, the winner of that match faces the loser of the Harames-Snider match for the region’s second state tournament berth.

 

Seeding

In the regional tournament, it pays to be the higher seed. If a singles player or doubles team is seeded No. 1, they are automatically one win away from a state tournament, and they are the only ones with a second shot if they lose their first match.

Second seeds need to win two matches to reach state.

Three seeds have the toughest road to state, needing to win three matches in the same day to reach state – each of them loser-out. The GSL No. 3 seed plays the Mid-Columbia Conference No. 2 seed in a loser-out match, then faces the GSL No. 2 seed in a loser-out match and finally plays the loser of the match between No. 1 seeds for the state berth.