Liberty, Hazen tennis players medal
June 4, 2015
By Christina Corrales-Toy
Marek Pierepiekarz and Matthew Cao needed a little time to get warmed up, but once they did, opponents were on alert.
By Greg Farrar
Marek Pierepiekarz (left), Liberty High School junior, hits a volley as teammate Matthew Cao, senior, gets ready in the backcourt for a return during their quarterfinal 2A state championship doubles tennis match May 29 at the UW in a 6-0, 6-0 win against Drew Segren and Kevin Smiley of Squalicum.
The Liberty High School doubles team took second place at the Class 2A state boys tournament, held May 29-30 at the University of Washington, picking up where they left off in the fall when they became the first tennis players in school history to win a district championship.
The duo opened play at 8 a.m. Friday against Tumwater, and even though they won in straight sets (6-1, 6-2), Pierepiekarz said they weren’t at their sharpest.
It was after all, a bit early for a match, Cao said, especially for a team that hadn’t played meaningful matches together since the season ended in the fall.
After making quick work of Tumwater, 6-1, in the first set, Liberty fell behind early in the second set. But they overcame the early 2-0 deficit to get the win.
“We knew we could do it. We were just working around it, getting warmed up,” Pierepiekarz said.
If they were warmed up in the first match, they were certainly on fire in the second one later that day.
Pierepiekarz and Cao discarded Squalicum in dominating fashion, making their opponents look nearly hopeless in the 6-0, 6-0 Liberty win.
It was the perfect example of the duo hitting on all cylinders, and their confidence visibly grew with every serve, lob and volley.
“We work great as a team,” said Pierepiekarz, a junior. “Matthew is a great partner. He keeps backing me up whenever something gets past me.”
“And, you know, Marek is like 6-6, so not a lot of things get past him,” said Cao, a senior.
The win versus Squalicum put the Patriots into the semifinals, where they met Ephrata in a thriller that required a tiebreaker after the third set the next day.
Liberty mustered up just enough, winning the match 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8-6) to advance into the 2A state finals, where they would meet a “good Shorecrest team,” Liberty tennis coach Mike Salokas said.
The title match started out promising for Liberty, after the duo won the first set, 6-1. But Shorecrest won the next two sets, 6-4, 6-4 to win the championship.
“While the end result was not the best from an LHS perspective, the road in getting to the finals was a wealth of a learning opportunity,” Salokas said.
Pierepiekarz and Cao’s performance also buoyed Liberty to a fourth-place finish in the 2A boys team standings.
Liberty also sent sophomore Jyotsna Kuramkote to the 2A girls state tournament.
Kuramkote, whom Salokas described as one of Liberty’s more consistent singles players this season, won her opening-round match before dropping the next two.
Hazen
Contributed
Hazen tennis players (from left) Gregg Furumasu, Misa Takami and Bruno Hernandez-Sotres each picked up medals at the 2015 3A state tennis championships.
The Highlanders earned three medals at the 3A state tennis championships held May 29-30 at Kamiakin High School and Tri-City Court Club.
Bruno Hernandez-Sotres was Hazen’s top finisher, defeating teammate Gregg Furumasu (6-1, 7-5) in a boys singles medal match to earn fifth place.
Hernandez-Sotres and Furumasu each dropped their opening-round matches, but won the next two to set up the all-Hazen matchup. Furumasu would settle for eighth place.
Hazen also earned a fourth-place finish in the 3A boys tennis team standings.
Misa Takami also picked up a medal, finishing seventh on the 3A girls side.
Takami took out Glacier Peak’s Madeline Mahler (6-1, 6-1) in the first round, before falling to eventual state champion Catherine Allen, of Holy Names Academy.
After dropping her first set, 6-0, in the next match against Mercer Island’s Sarah Sweet, Takami won the next two to advance to the medal round where she lost to Akari Baba, of Prairie.
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