Tess Manthou and Eliana Spero came about as far as a duo possibly could in a very short time this spring.
Kentwood High’s standout doubles team sparingly competed with one another during the regular season, but joined forces during the postseason these last three weeks.
After taking second at league three weeks ago, Manthou and Spero delivered a mild surprise by grabbing a district title a week later. This past weekend at the Class 4A state tournament in Vancouver, Manthou and Spero nearly pulled off the perfect finish. Kentwood’s dynamic duo won three-straight matches in Vancouver before falling to Brittany Ellingsen and Anna Romanovsky of Skyview in a marathon championship match, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 (8-6).
“We had our opportunities,” lamented Manthou. “We had four match points, but weren’t able to put the ball away.”
Though the end result may me bittersweet, the pair of Conquerors made some impressive strides in a very short time, Kentwood coach Ingrid Bakke said.
“The girls did a great job and competed in every way we ask them to,” Bakke said.
Manthou and Spero knocked off Ellingsen and Romanovsky in the championship match of the West Central District tournament a week earlier at Sprinker Recreation Center in Spanaway. Though the state championship match was just as tight, the Skyview tandem had a slight edge due to the fact that they were playing on their home court, Bakke said.
“The finals were intense to say the least,” Bakke said. “It was (Skyview’s) home club in Vancouver, (and) they had a lot of support and wanted revenge.”
The Kentwood doubles team opened the tournament with a 6-2, 6-0 throttling of Kamiak’s Zoe Jovanovich and Veronica Ahn. Manthou and Spero moved on to beat Annie Singe and Bailey Kilmer of Olympia in the quarterfinals, setting the stage for a tight 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Garfield’s Fiona Cerf and Arina Abott of Garfield in the semifinals.
Despite the championship loss, the junior Manthou and senior Spero both moved up from last year’s finish, when each of them had a different playing partner. Manthou took third in doubles last year while Spero finished in seventh.
“It was definitely a disappointment to lose in the finals,” Manthou said. “But to take a step back and think about taking second in state makes it feel a whole lot better.”
Also enjoying an impressive showing was Tahoma’s doubles team Maddie Turek and Sierra Southworth. Turek and Southworth, who won the South Puget Sound League title three weeks ago, grabbed a third-place finish after beating Cerf and Abott of Garfield, 6-3, 6-2. The lone loss for the Tahoma pair came against eventual state champions Ellingsen and Romanovsky.
• ALSO: Outside of the two doubles teams, Kentridge tandem of Vincent Lin and Alex Yi were the only other Kent School District players to win a match at the state tournament. Lin and Yi opened with a win over Jackson’s James Okubo and Peter Cung before dropping two in a row in the double-elimination tournament.
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