Showcasing her ferocious serve, Avalon Renninger teamed up with fellow sophomore Tia Wurzrainer Monday to win in straight sets. (Photo by JohnsPhotos.net)
Small, but important steps.
A young, plucky and undermanned Coupeville High School girls tennis team didn’t get the win Monday, but it did flash a lot of positives.
The Wolves fell 5-2 to visiting Port Angeles, a large 2A school which carries 31 players on its full roster (double Coupeville’s body count).
But, having sunshine instead of howling wind and slashing rain on Opening Day was a good sign.
Brighter than the sun was the play of sophomore sensations Avalon Renninger and Tia Wurzrainer, who romped to a win at second doubles.
While Coupeville’s top doubles duo, seniors Payton Aparicio and Sage Renninger, were huge favorites and easily lived up to the hype with their own straight-sets victory, the younger Wolf aces were somewhat of an unknown entering the match.
Both Wurzrainer and Avalon Renninger had strong freshman years, but they are a new pairing as a doubles team, so there might have been some kinks to work out in their first official match.
Not so.
The left-handed Renninger controlled the match on her serve, zinging low, hard shots which bit a chunk out of the court as they skidded away from the Port Angeles netters.
Her running mate was particularly deft at the net, as Wurzrainer delighted her fervent fan club with a series of crisp put-aways.
Their play brought a quick smile to the face of longtime Coupeville net guru Ken Stange as he restlessly prowled the outside of the chain link fence.
With a solid line-up of doubles duos, the Wolves should give rival teams trouble all year long.
Singles is a little more of a work in progress, as CHS deals with the loss of its top three players from a year ago to graduation.
With Valen Trujillo and Co. off to pursue new avenues in life, Wolf freshman Genna Wright got a chance to jump right into the cauldron of playing first singles on opening day.
A naturally-talented athlete and one of the most gung-ho people on the planet Earth, the fab frosh was a First-Team All-Conference player in soccer and a one-woman wrecking crew in basketball.
While she might not have the same amount of experience in tennis as she does in her other sports, Wright came out swinging Monday, making her far more seasoned foe battle mightily for every point.
At one point, the two players went back and forth on a sustained rally, before the freshman dumped a back-hand winner just out of the reach of her rival.
Walking back to the service line, head down, hat pulled low, Wright wore a giddy grin, a star of tomorrow savoring a winner today.
Complete Monday results:
Varsity:
1st Singles — Genna Wright lost to Summer Olsen 6-0, 6-1
2nd Singles — Heather Nastali lost to Hailey Horton 6-1, 6-0
3rd Singles — Nanci Melendrez lost to Kailey Droz 6-0, 6-0
1st Doubles — Payton Aparicio/Sage Renninger beat Saige Hefton/Casandra Shamp 6-0, 6-3
2nd Doubles — Avalon Renninger/Tia Wurzrainer beat Jocelyn Reifenstahl/Emily Metzeler 6-2, 6-1
3rd Doubles — Claire Mietus/Maggie Crimmins lost to Paulina Crawford/Madison Saiz 6-2, 6-2
4th Doubles — Jillian Mayne/Zara Bradley lost to Hanna Brown/Emily Rygaard 6-0, 5-3 (PA left to catch ferry)
JV:
5th Doubles — Elaira Nicolle/Megan Behan trailed 3-0 (ferry)
6th Doubles — Jaimee Masters/Emily Fiedler lost 6-2
