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Tornado sweeps up at state By CLIFF PFENNING BEAVERTON - Dale Jensen guided the North Medford Black Tornado to the Class 4A girls tennis state championship Saturday at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center. Now he wants a celebration. Junior Jenny Brown won the singles title and the team of senior Leslie Schultz and sophomore Annie Chaney won the doubles crown to give North enough points to beat Jesuit of Portland at the OSAA/U.S. Bank championships. It was the Tornado's fifth state title and first since 1975. "We won all three trophies, singles, doubles and team," said Jensen, who has been coaching tennis for 21 years. "That's a pretty special feat, a sweep. "We want a parade." Brown - who attends St. Mary's but plays for North because her school doesn't offer tennis - gave the Tornado its first singles champion and culminated a fantastic year for herself. She missed four months of training in the fall and winter because of a wrist injury, but turned to running and won the Class 2A cross country state title. Then, she caught a break when defending singles champion Tara Livesay of Lakeridge suffered an injury and was unable to compete in the state tournament. Brown beat Beaverton senior Heayeun Ester Bak 6-3, 6-1 in the final. "Winning the tennis tournament means a lot more to me because that's my sport," Brown said. "Winning the cross country title was fun, but I didn't train for that. I've been playing tennis my whole life. This is a great moment for me." Brown soaked in her singles victory for just a couple minutes before rushing over to Schultz and Chaney to give a pep talk as the doubles team was about to start their third set. They finished their match 15 minutes later, beating Jesuit's Monica Young and Allison Stoloff 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. North Medford scored 22 team points and beat Jesuit by six points. "This is the best way to win," Schultz said. "To win both titles and be the team champion, that's how you want to end your senior year." Brown, the No. 1 seed, beat Nicole Jackson of Lake Oswego 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals Saturday morning and entered the final drained. But she broke Bak's serve in the first game and quickly led 3-0. Bak struggled with her first serve and never got above 50 percent. Brown led 40-0 in the fourth game, but her serve went awry and Bak rebounded to 3-2 with a service break and a victory in what appeared to be a key game, where the players reached deuce eight times and played for almost 30 minutes. After a brief rest, Brown won the next game on four serves and the match went quickly from there. "I knew I had to put the last game out of my mind and just play well," Brown said. "I was lucky in that I got to serve with the sun at my back. I played better from that side." Bak had beaten Brown in a February junior match in Medford. "I thought I was going to get back in the match," Bak said, "but she started to really play well. She was serving well." Schultz and Chaney formed their team just prior to the start of the season because they knew Brown had a good chance to win the singles title, and a strong doubles team would give the school a better chance to win the team title. "I wanted to win a state title before I graduated and this looked like the best chance," Schultz said. "It worked out great." Other singles players had the same idea. Cleveland sisters Ashley and Cristin Sammis teamed up just before the tournament and upset defending champions Sarah Ansboury and Lillian Dunlap in the quarterfinals. But Schultz and Chaney upset them in the semifinals in three sets. In the final, they battled with the Jesuit players until Brown's victory clinched the team title and took pressure off their play. A Medford team also won the doubles title in 1964 and '66. North Medford is the fourth school to win the singles and doubles championship in the same year, following Lakeridge, which accomplished the feat last year, Jesuit in 1996 and McMinnville in 1952. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.