Grizzlies advance five
The Ashland High girls doubles team advanced three singles players and one doubles team to the second day of the District 4 tennis tournament Thursday in Ashland.
Top-seeded Casey Schein and third-seeded Maggie Schein won three matches apiece to cruise into the semifinals, to be played May 9 at the Eugene Swim and Tennis Center. Ashland's Monica Heiken also won three matches to earn a quarterfinal date May 8 against No. 2-seeded Brittany Banna of Churchill.
In doubles action, Ashland's Christi Gay and Chloe Deckwar won three matches to advance to the quarterfinals, where they will play a team from Churchill on May 8 in Eugene.
In one of the best matches of the day, Ashland's Katie Patton and Laurel Sager pushed the No. 1-seeded team of Ami Waples and Alyssa Adkisson to the limit before falling 7-5, 6-3.
Also for Ashland, Emily Minasian defeated Erin Holt of North Eugene, 6-1, 6-1, before losing to the No. 4 seeded Whitney Lewis of Springfield, 6-1, 6-3; Lila Schreiber and Nicole Jacquat earned two impressive wins before losing in the quarterfinals to the No. 3 seeds, Chloe Swenson and Callyn Adkisson of Churchill, 6-4, 6-1; Kelsey Mills and Alison Calypool-Conrad beat Crystal Enos and Malaea Relampagos of Willamette 6-1, 6-4 before falling to the No. 2-seeded team of Amber Brazil and Natalie Smith of Thurston, 6-3, 6-2.
Casey Schein didn't lose a game in her three wins and will play play fourth-seeded Whitney Lewis of Thurston in the semis. Maggie Schein also won all her matches in straight sets and will play the winner of the Heiken-Banna match in the semis.
Heiken beat Stephanie Horton of Mazama 6-3, 6-2, Anna Beer of Marshfield 6-1, 6-0 and Hailey Meekins of Springfield 6-1, 6-1.
Thursday's singles matches were played at SOU's University Courts, while the doubles matches were played at Hunter Park.
The top four singles players and doubles teams from each conference advance to the OSAA Class 5A state tournament, to be played May 15 through May 17 at the Portland Tennis Center and Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton.
Sports editor Joe Zavala can be reached at 482-3456 x 224 or joe.zavala@dailytidings.com
