Tennis team drops pair to open season, tandem only win

The Spartan boys' tennis team dropped their opening two matches of the 2009 season last week to Everett and Marysville-Pilchuck.

The Seagulls from Everett pulled out a 6-1 victory whereas the Tommies from M-P had to outlast their Stanwood counterparts with a last-ditch, come-from-behind effort at No. 3 doubles for a narrow 4-3 triumph.

Interestingly it was the No. 3 Spartan tandem that recorded the only Stanwood win during the opening match with the Gulls on Wednesday in the season opener for the local low netters. In that one, the Sparts' Joey Zingarelli and Joel Shroyer completed a 6-2, 7-6 sweep of Everett's twosome, Alex Raynor and Tom Gebert.

All the other matches went to the host Seagulls.

On Friday the Spartans used wins by the No. 3 and 4 singles players and the No. 2 doubles team of James McCune and Drew Pollock to draw close to the visiting Tomahawks.

McCune and Pollock defeated Marysville's Jake Hereth and C.J. Nearman by a score of 7-5, 6-4 while the No. 3 local singles player, Jacob Hamiter, beat Luke Geiseke 6-0, 6-4, and Sean Dolan (No. 4) out-hit Andrew Vander- Stoep of M-P 6-3, 6-2 for the Sparts' other victories.

It took a third set for the Tommies to upend Stanwood's No. 3 pair of Shroyer and Nathan Beykovskyi 1-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the day's final encounter.