State title tennis trophies are back in Bellevue in 3A and 4A after the Newport boys successfully defended their team title and boys doubles championship and Interlake’s Connor Garnett cruised to another title in 3A singles, leading the Saints to a second place finish in the team scoring.
Garnett, who won the 2A state championship last year over teammate and 2011 state title winner Luat Le, won all four of his matches in straight sets to make it back-to-back titles and three straight for Interlake in boys singles. He won his first match of the tournament over Dominik Gorecki of Columbia River before beating Peter Koessler of Wilson, Brian Hou from Mercer Island and Kennedy’s Jamie Thorp to capture his second state title trophy in as many tries.
Le made it to the third place match in his final prep season, winning his first two matches to reach the semi-finals before falling to Thorp and then Hou.
Newport repeated as the team champs on the boys side in 4A with Dylan Harlow and Matt Sham winning the title over teammates David An and Alex Namba.
Harlow was one-half of a duo that finished third in 4A doubles last year while Sham was part of the fifth place finishing pair in 2012.
Harlow and Sham won a pair of straight set matches on the first day of play before dropping the first set of their semi-final match with Richland’s Travis Zuroske and Zach Fisher.
An and Namba won their first match 2-0 before losing the first set in the quarterfinals.
But it was Harlow and Sham who had the final salvo, as they came back to win a pair of sets in the semi-finals and defeated An and Namba in straight sets to win the 4A boys doubles title.
Angela Chen entered the state tournament perfect on the season and had yet to even lose a set after winning the girls 4A doubles title last year.
Chen remained flawless through the first day of this year’s singles tournament before losing her first set in the semi-finals and dropping a 2-1 match to Skyview’s Sammi Hampton in the state title match.
Chen beat Sydney Wallace of Union and Megan Hagerty of Graham-Kapowsin 2-0 on the first day before surviving a three set match with Union’s Jelena Vidovic and falling to Hampton in the finals.
Interlake’s Isabelle Long lost her first match of the 3A girls singles tournament 2-0 before rebounding to win three straight matches and capture a fifth place trophy.
Long came back on the first day to beat Ainsley Winterrowd of North Thurston and Jenny Sui of Shorecrest 2-0 before winning the fifth place match Saturday over Sui’s teammate Meera Limaye, also in straight sets.
