Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 15, 2004 Grizzlies trading blows By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings A tennis match turned into target practice, which meant bull's-eye after bull's-eye for Chelsea Van Lehn and Kate Morris. Ashland High Senior Camille Morris returns a forehand to Denise Ledgerwood of Klamath Union during the Southern Oregon Conference district tennis meet Thursday at Hunter Park. Morris lost to Stacy Wetmore of Roseburg in the quarterfinals. Satsuki Doi | Ashland Daily Tidings Attacking the net and slamming home overheads with deadly precision, Van Lehn and Morris, Ashland High's top doubles tandem, rolled through the first day of the Southern Oregon Conference girls' district tennis meet Thursday at Hunter Park. The dynamic duo won both its matches in straight sets, leading the Grizzlies to a first-place tie with Grants Pass in a team competition that may come down to the final match when the tournament resumes Saturday at the same site. "They played staggered a little bit and our strong point is definitely coming to the net," Morris said. "So, we were just going to focus on our game and not really worry about what they were doing to us very much. I thought we came out a little slow and we'll definitely have more intensity Saturday." Both Ashland and Grants Pass ended Day 1 with 16 points, while Roseburg notched 11 and North Medford and South Medford each gained 10. The Grizzlies are gunning for their second straight district title. Ashland sophomore Kayla Moyse, the No. 2 seed in the singles tournament, also dominated her first two matches, trouncing both Valerie Iverson of North Medford (second round) and Megan Siepert of Roseburg (quarterfinals) without dropping a single game. Moyse will face third-seeded Stacy Wetmore of Roseburg in one semifinal, while top-seeded Ruth Lopez of Grants Pass will play unseeded Masha Los of Roseburg on the other side of the bracket. "I'm guaranteed to state, so I'm happy, but if I can win (Saturday) that's definitely my goal," Moyse said. "I've beaten (Wetmore) both times (in the only previous meetings), but she's still a really good player and I have to play my game." In doubles, Van Lehn and Morris, the third-seeds, will take on top-seeded McKenzie Hilmer and Lauren Wilson of North Medford, while on the other side of the bracket the second-seeded team of Sonu Allen and Galaxy Slight of Roseburg will face the fourth-seeded team of Jennifer Pendergast and Heather Dumas of North Medford. Semifinal matches will start at 10 a.m. Also still alive for Ashland is the doubles team of Samantha Holtey and Sarah Cate, which will lock horns with Piper Dobner and Lacey Dean of Grants Pass in the consolation finals. A strong start After a first-round bye, Van Lehn and Morris downed Carleen Bullard and Jennifer Dumas from North Medford, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round, then buried Amy Dorius and Emily Gawne, 6-3, 6-2 in the quarters. Van Lehn and Morris toyed with the Dorius-Gawne combo and were never seriously threatened despite taking the court just 30 minutes after their previous match. Now they'll face the top seeds, which they lost to, 7-6 (3), 6-0, back on April 8. Morris said entering the match with a state berth already locked up takes the pressure off. "We're just going to come in just focused, mentally prepared to play some tennis and just have fun," she said. Moyse canned North's Valerie Iverson 6-0, 6-0 in the second round and Roseburg's Megan Siepert by the same score in the quarters. Ashland senior Lauren Sargent, the No. 4 seed, lost in the biggest upset of the day, 6-1, 6-1, to the surprising Los. Also playing singles for the Grizzlies were junior Briana Lescher and senior Camille Morris. Lescher won her first two matches convincingly before being ousted in straight sets (6-1, 6-0) by Lopez, while Morris won her first two matches before losing in straight sets (6-1, 6-0) to Wetmore. Hanging in In doubles, Ashland's Samantha Laskos and Jordan Merrill earned a second-round win before falling to Hilmer and Wilson, 6-1, 6-3, in the quarters. Ashland's Kristina Voskes and Jamie Marvin won their first-round match before getting thumped, 6-0, 6-3, by Pendergast and Dumas in the second round. After losing in straight sets in the first round, Cate and Holtey earned consecutive pro-set victories to keep their trophy hopes alive. "The girls all played hard and great things happened and some not so good things happened," Ashland coach Karl Carstensen said. "I told the girls before we came out here was that the only thing we can expect is to play our best tennis and fight and play hard, and that would be good enough." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams