PREPS ROUNDUP: Sequim, Port Angeles rivalry tennis match goes down to the wire

SEQUIM — Sequim and Port Angeles boys tennis players volleyed back and forth in a down-to-the-wire 4-3 win by the Wolves at home on Thursday.

“This match was really well played by both sides and could have gone either way,” Roughriders coach Brian Gundersen said.

“We had two matches go to a third set and we just couldn’t get over the top.”

Wolves No. 1 singles player Garrett Little dropped the tightly contested first set by one game, but rallied to edge Roughriders’ No. 1 Reef Gelder 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

“Garrett Little had a great comeback win,” Sequim coach Mark Textor said.

“All three singles players played great and Connor Bear played particularly well.”

Textor also said the No. 1 doubles match between Sequim’s Jack Van DeWege and Henry Hughes and Port Angeles’ Damon Gundersen and Michael Soule was “a great match.”

Van DeWege and Hughes also dropped the first set before rallying for a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 win.

Coach Gundersen came away impressed with both squads.

“This was a great high school tennis match,” Gundersen said. “Guys were leaving it all out on the court, playing with incredible intensity and effort and the sportsmanship was top notch.”

Port Angeles finishes out their regular season with a senior night match against Kingston on Monday at 4 p.m.

Sequim visits Olympic to wrap the regular season Monday.

Sequim 4, Port Angeles 3

Singles

No. 1: Garrett Little (Seq.) def. Reef Gelder (PA), 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

No. 2: Connor Bear (Seq.) def. Edun Bailey (PA), 6-1, 6-4.

No. 3: Koda Robinson (Seq.) def. Tate Alton (PA), 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles

No. 1: Jack Van DeWege and Henry Hughes (Seq.) def. Damon Gundersen and Michael Soule (PA), 4-6, 6-2, 7-6.

No. 2: James Burkhardt and Zane Glassock (PA) def. Espn Judd and Kaiden Jones (Seq.), 6-2, 7-6.

No. 3: Elijah Flodstrom and Zak Alton (PA) def. Adrian Brown and William Hughes (Seq.), 6-4, 6-2.

No. 4: Kellen Garcelon and Nathan Basden (PA) def. Ashton Smith and Tyler Sheffield (Seq.), 6-2, 6-0.

Volleyball Bainbridge 3, Sequim 0

BAINBRIDGE — The Wolves nearly met their goal of taking a game off the Olympic League leading, unbeaten Class 3A No. 10 Spartans falling 25-18, 25-16, 25-10.

“They haven’t lost yet, and I don’t even think they’ve lost a game,” Sequim coach Jennie Webber Heilman said.

Bainbridge did drop a pair of games in a 3-2 loss to 2A leader North Kitsap, but the point remains. The Spartans are a force.

“They attack a lot and it really kind of wore us down,” Webber Heilman said. “They don’t send over a lot of free balls.

“First game, we were right there with them tied at 18.”

Webber-Heilman said her team will work on its blocking as it moves toward league tournament time.

“If we want to get there and stay there we will need to improve on that for the postseason,” she said.

Malorey Morey continued her hot run of serving, going 6 for 6 with three kills.

“She doesn’t always serve, but she’s only missed one all year,” Webber Heilman said.

Allie Gale served 8 for 8 with three perfect passes, two kills and 12 assists.

Kendall Hastings also went 100 percent at the line, serving 7 for 7 with seven kills, seven assists, four perfect passes and a block.

Jolene Vaara posted two aces on 6 of 8 serving and added four kills, two blocks, two perfect passes and five digs.

Kelsey Bergeson also went a perfect 10 of 10 on serves with an ace and a kill.

Sequim also fell 25-22, 25-17 and 25-16 to 2A No. 9 North Kitsap.

“One thing we did better against them from the first game is not allow long serving runs,” Webber Heilman said.

Sequim (7-4, 8-4) hosts Bremerton on Tuesday.

North Kitsap 3, Port Angeles 0

PORT ANGELES — The Riders were swept 25-11, 25-12, 25-19 by the Vikings, but Port Angeles coach Jennifer Reynolds said her team enjoyed the challenge.

“They came out strong as expected,” Reynolds said of North Kitsap. “We love playing games like this because it provides us an opportunity to practice defending against a fast offense. Each game, we learned and adapted to our opponent.”

Reynolds said the Riders were tied with the Vikings 18-18 in the final set before North Kitsap pulled away.

“We welcomed back Sam Robbins last night [and] she had two aces, six kills and four digs,” Reynolds said.

Ava Hairell and Jasmine Messinger had two kills each.

Junior Lily Halberg had two aces, a kill and 13 digs. Sophomore Josephine Edgington added 13 assists and a pair of digs.

Port Angeles (3-7) visits Bainbridge on Tuesday.

Forks 3, Ilwaco 0

FORKS — The Spartans got through a rough patch in the second game and finished off the Fishermen 25-11, 27-25, 25-6 for a Class 2B Pacific League win.

Kaidence Rigby led the way for Forks with nine kills, four aces and three blocks.

Rigby was selected as the match’s player of the game by the referees at the match.

“She played with confidence last night and you could feel it,” coach Jenn LeDuke said. “It was awesome to see how emotional Kaidence was, as well as her teammates were for her, while watching her receive it.”

Kyra Neel added nine kills, two aces and a pair of blocks and Kadie Wood was accurate with her serve, garnering six aces and posting three kills.

Eladia Hernandez put down five kills, two aces and had four digs.

Kyrissa Duncan served 100 percent with an ace and an assist.

Forks (6-1, 6-2) hosts North Beach on Monday.

Swimming

Port Angeles undefeated

PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Girls Swim and Dive Team continued its winning streak this week. The Riders hosted a tri-meet against Bremerton and Klahowya at Shore Aquatic Center on Thursday, beating Bremerton 120-36 and Klahowya 123-51.

The victories bring the Riders’ record to 7 – 0.

The Riders swept the top spots in all three relays and were victorious in five individual events.

Among the highlights were junior Sara Wilson in the 100 butterfly, winning a close race with a time of 1 minutes, 13.65 seconds. Sophomore Yau Fu took top honors in the 200 freestyle with a 2:13.37 finish and sophomore Harper McGuire swam to victory in the 50 freestyle with a time of 27.62.

Freshman Brooke St. Luise picked up another first in the 500 freestyle, clocking in at 6:25.12, and junior Rachel Cooper topped the field in her event completing the 100 breaststroke in 1:24.06.

These girls all achieved district qualifying times along with senior Sage Hunter in the 200 individual medley (2:29.04) and freshman Danika Asgeirsson in the 100 freestyle (1:04.40.). Notching another win for the Riders was senior and co-captain Anne Edwards, with the top diving score of 150.05.

Last week, the Roughriders took on their Olympic Peninsula rivals in Sequim. Port Angeles made themselves comfortable on the road in their first away meet in two years, routing host Sequim 120-46, taking first in every race.

Proving that the Riders don’t need home pool advantage to swim fast, junior Mackenzie DuBois topped the field in both the 200 individual medley (2:22.42) and 100 butterfly (1:04.51) achieving state qualifying times in both. The first state times for the Port Angeles team.

Sophomore Harper McGuire also had two individual event wins in the 200 freestyle (2:13.96) and 500 freestyle (5:52.61).

Picking up all other victories for the Riders were senior Anne Edwards in the 50 free (0:28.44), senior Sage Hunter in the 100 freestyle (1:02.12), freshman Danika Asgeirsson in the 100 backstroke (1:10.99) and junior Rachel Cooper in the 100 breaststroke (1:22.53).

Amid the high points, senior and co-captain Emilee Reid fought to the final end to hold on to her second-place lead in the 500 free just out touching Sequim by three-tenths of a second.

And, not having a diving board didn’t stop the Roughrider dive team from putting up points. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of senior Aubrie Scott, senior Gillian Wolfe, sophomore Kathryn Jones and senior Anne Edwards, all divers, finished second, clocking in at 2:09.15.

Port Angeles hits the road again next week to take on Bainbridge.