SEATTLE — Hayley Newman won her first-round match before she lost the next two and was eliminated from placing in the girls singles 2A state championship at the Nordstrom Tennis Center at the University of Washington.

“The pressure just kind of got to me, overall,” she said.

Her first match was typical of Hayley Newman. It was a rally-filled 6-4, 6-2 win against Lauren Salberg of Mark Morris. Newman played “pusher” tennis as she had all season. That’s how she advanced to the state tournament.

“When the match gets tight, Hayley tends to get conservative,” said South Whidbey tennis coach Tom Kramer. “She’s patient, but she gets conservative.”

After rallying back to win the first set, she regrouped and quickly took control of the second set.

“Kramer’s pep talks in between sets and between my matches really just got me going,” Newman said. “I mean, his advice, for the most part, always works. I’ve learned now just to listen to him because he’s right, and when I listen to him I’ll win.”

On May 17, Newman rallied her way to state through three sets in the District 1 tennis tournament. After losing the first set 1-6, she won the next two sets 6-2 and 6-4 to defeat Mariel McCown from Anacortes.

The match lasted three hours.

“I think, actually, all of my matches at districts, except one, were about three hours,” Newman said.

“I’d be tired, but they were way more worn out than I am,” she added.

She credited Craig Stelling, her conditioning teacher at South Whidbey, for getting her into shape. Stelling also coaches as a throwing assistant for the track-and-field teams.

“He has done a great job of like pushing me to my full potential,” Newman said. “He’d make me go on runs when I don’t want to, but he still makes me do that.”

“I would give almost all of my conditioning credit to Mr. Stelling,” she added.

Flash forward to Friday, May 27 and the first set had a similar feel to those district matches. For every hit Salberg returned, Newman rallied it back across the net until Salberg hit the ball into the net or out of bounds. She played to make Salberg lose points, rather than rush the net and try to win points. It lasted almost two hours before she won.

“Unfortunately it was no surprise that after that everyone knew what Hayley intended to do,” Kramer said.

In the second round, Newman was defeated by Abigail Pellett from Ellensburg 3-6, 1-6.

“Me, just only being a sophomore, I haven’t really developed, like, all of the skills I should have,” she said.

Pellett played, and lost, to Hayley’s older sister Lindsey during one of Lindsey’s three state championship runs. Newman described Pellett as a club player, someone who is used to rhythm and consistency. Her plan against Pellett was to throw her out of rhythm. It didn’t go as well as she planned.

“She was more consistent and playing more of her game than I was, definitely,” Hayley said.

The strategy changed for Newman’s third match, a loser-out series. She wanted to be more aggressive and work on a better kick on topspin hits.

That also didn’t work the way she hoped. “My topspin obviously isn’t as good as Riley’s,” Newman said of her brother, the 2009 2A boys champion. “Because that’s the just way he is; he can get that topspin faster that shoots back like five feet. When I did try to do my topspin, it came out like lobs and she’d just move me around.”

Then, in the consolation bracket Newman lost to Michelle Chiou of Hockinson 1-6, 1-6.

Pellett advanced to the championship match where she lost 0-6, 0-6 to Tracy Landram of Klahowya. Chiou finished in seventh place. Had Newman won her match against Chiou, she would have placed either seventh with a loss, or fourth with a win — like her brother.

“Given her experience, given the nature of the season — it was so broken up — I thought it turned out as well as could be expected,” Kramer said.

Her goal was to qualify for the state tournament. Check.

Next year, her goal is to place at state. Check back next season.

Here’s a link to the full 2A girls singles bracket.