South Whidbey learned a short memory is a good thing the hard way after a 0-7 loss at Sehome on Friday. The Falcons rebounded to beat Coupeville 5-2 in Langley on Monday.
First-year Falcons coach Karyle Kramer changed the rankings again and switched a few players from singles to doubles for both matches.
Nathan Riley, a freshman, defeated Coupeville’s fourth-singles player Aaron Curtin, 6-0, 6-2.
It was Riley’s first varsity victory.
“Nathan is another freshman who has been working hard in practices and earned a chance to play singles for varsity this week,” Kramer said.
Noah Frank, another Falcons freshman, stayed at third singles. He beat Taku Yamauci 6-1, 7-5.
South Whidbey’s newly-appointed top two singles players both lost. Cameron Baldwin, a junior, lost to the Wolves’ Nathan Lamb, 1-6, 1-6. It was the third singles match he’s played this season, and Baldwin remains winless.
“Cameron had some breakthrough games, although the score doesn’t reflect it,” Kramer said. “Toward the end of the second set he settled down and figured out how to play better against Lamb, but he was too consistent for Cameron to beat this time.”
“Now, he needs to string the points together in order to win the sets.”
Jonathon Peterson, a Falcons freshman, lost the third singles match to Nick Smith, 6-0, 6-1.
“Jonathon has had to play up several times this season,” Kramer said. “He usually has stronger second sets, showing that he can apply a game plan and work towards turning the match around. He’s getting a lot of experience this season.”
South Whidbey’s new doubles pairings swept, and only lost three games between all three matches. Kramer moved former top singles player Guy Sparkman to first doubles with freshman Charley Stelling. They defeated Larry Hurlburt and Jason Knoll 6-1, 6-1.
Hayden Nichols and Jack Hood beat Coupeville’s second doubles team of Brian Norris and Brandon Kelley, 6-1, 6-0.
South Whidbey’s most veteran pair swept Coupeville’s third doubles team. Falcons junior co-captain Kyle Simchuk and junior Chase Collins beat Jake McCormick and Cameron Boyd-Eck.
Monday’s matches were role reversals from South Whidbey’s outing against Sehome in Bellingham on Sept. 16. The Falcons lost all seven matches and claimed only one set.
Sparkman and Stelling, playing doubles together for the first time, won the first set 6-4 against Jake Highleyman and Elliott Noell. Then Sehome’s top doubles team cruised in the second set 6-0 to send the game into a third set. Sparkman and Stelling led 5-3, but Sehome rallied back to win 7-5.
“It was a good showing and we walked away with a clearer understanding of what we need to work on,” Kramer said.
The rest of the matches against Sehome were lost in two sets.
In singles, Baldwin lost to Avery West — last year’s District 1 tournament singles runner-up, 0-6. 0-6. Peterson lost to Nick Smith, 0-6, 1-6. Frank lost to Johann Lahud-Zahner 4-6, 2-6. Riley lost to Andrew Bruce, 0-6, 0-6.
South Whidbey’s doubles teams also struggled against Sehome, one of the top tennis teams in the Northwest Conference. Hood and Nichols lost to Jason Newwell and Steven Brugge, 1-6, 3-6. Simchuk and Collins lost to Mitch Catey and Ben Carroll, 0-6, 3-6.
