Max Manthou and Matt Overland are each one win away from making it an all-Kent contest for the Class 4A state boys singles tennis championship.
The two star juniors breezed through their first two matches on Friday at the Tri-City Court Club.
Manthou, the two-time defending state champ from Kentwood, blanked Trevor Amsbury of Monroe in the first round, 6-0, 6-0, then took care of Skyview’s Kent Andreasen in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 6-1.
Overland, Manthou’s talented counterpart from Kentridge, downed Zach Willis of Spokane’s Lewis & Clark in the opener, 6-0, 6-1, then beat Andrew Anderson of Gig Harbor in the quarters, 6-1, 6-2.
Manthou meets Kyle Koetje of Stanwood in this morning’s semifinals. Overland takes on Troy Zuroske of Richland in a rematch of a first-round state contest last season. Overland won that in an abbreviated three-setter, 6-4, 5-7, 9-7. (The third set was a super-tiebreaker, as were all third sets on state Friday 2008, because rain pushed things way behind schedule.)
The singles final will be at 1:30 p.m. at the Court Club.
Manthou and Overland also met in last weekend’s West Central District championship match, with Manthou prevailing, 6-0, 6-4. Last season, the two Kent products played in the state semis, with Manthou winning, 6-3, 6-1.
The other three entries from Kent exited the tournament on Friday.
Kentridge’s all-junior boys doubles combination of Paul Yi and Vineeth Omkaram, who went two-and-out in 2008, won their opener on Friday, defeating Reed Pecha and Zach Stockwell of Snohomish, 6-2, 6-1. But they dropped a three-set quarterfinal to Bellarmine Prep’s Rajiv Iyengar and Spencer Herron, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1, then were eliminated by Garfield’s Frank Pavia and Wilson Platt, 6-1, 6-3.
KR senior Kim Quach bounced back from a 6-0, 6-3 first-round loss to Lake Stevens’ Antonia Liebenow to defeat Katie Willis of Wenatchee in consolation play, 6-3, 6-2. But Quach’s prep career came to a close in the consolation quarterfinals when Corinne Wurden of Central Kitsap prevailed, 6-3, 6-3.
Kentwood freshman Tess Manthou, Max’s sister, came up short in both of her matches, 7-5, 6-0 against Newport’s Annie Vo in the first round, then 6-3, 6-2 against Central Valley’s Leslie Ho in consolation play.
3A STATE
Kent residents Connor Thorp and Mitchell Thorp, who attend Kennedy High in Burien are in the medal hunt in the Class 3A state tournament at the Vancouver (Wash.) Tennis Center on Friday.
But they had to work a little overtime to stay in it.
The Thorps, who won the Class 3A West Central-Southwest District championship last weekend, got past Seamount League stablemates Malik Keval and Jeff Nguyen of Highline in a consolation quarterfinal match on Friday, 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-5.
That puts the two Lancers into a consolation semi on Saturday morning against Taylor Hunt and Garret Vincent of Seattle Prep. The winner of that will play for the fourth- and sixth-place medals in the consolation final later on Saturday.
In last Saturday’s district final, Thorp and Thorp defeated Keval and Nguyen, 6-3, 6-1.
The Thorps scored a straight-set victory in the first round, but fell to Mercer Island’s Max Franklin and Andrew Smith in the quarterfinals, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
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