A gut instinct paid off for Kentwood High girls tennis coach Ingrid Bakke.<\/p>\n
Behind No. 2 doubles tandem Niki Skinner and Camille Madsen, the Conquerors turned back Kentridge 3-2 in a pivotal South Puget Sound League North Division tennis match Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Skinner and Madsen provided the performance of the afternoon, overcoming Kentridge’s Kelsey Robson and Jazmine AhYat 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the final match of the day to seal the victory.<\/p>\n
It was just the second time all season Skinner and Madsen have teamed up.<\/p>\n
“I kind of had a good feeling about those two together today,” Bakke said.<\/p>\n
With all eyes on the Kentwood duo, Skinner proved to be in a zone late in the match, overpowering the Chargers with a mix of power and precision.<\/p>\n
The key to excelling in the pressure-packed situation was remaining focused, Skinner noted.<\/p>\n
“I told Camille, ‘Stay focused. Stay in it and finish it off and not get too excited,'” Skinner said. “We started off strong, we just needed to finish strong.”<\/p>\n
The win created more havoc in the race for the SPSL North title. Kentwood (9-3) and Kentridge (9-3) have been the frontrunners most of the season, but Auburn (10-3), thanks to consecutive wins over the Chargers and Conquerors, have now forced at least a three-team race with just a handful of matches remaining. Adding to the scenario is Tahoma (6-3), which still has several matches yet to be made up.<\/p>\n
Kentridge got the better of Kentwood last week, 4-1.<\/p>\n
Tuesday’s payback was critical, Kentwood’s Tess Manthou noted.<\/p>\n
“We needed it pretty bad if we want to take the title,” she said.<\/p>\n
Manthou, playing No. 1 singles, essentially got Kentwood going on Tuesday, dispatching Kentridge’s Vicky Tran 6-1, 6-2 in roughly 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
Alyssa Nagai followed in No. 2 singles with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Beth Vanden Heuvel.<\/p>\n
But Kentridge, which has spent the entire season in first place, didn’t go down easy. Katherine Melville and Kim Quach followed with a convincing win in No. 1 doubles, overcoming Kentwood’s Eliana Spero and Breanna Esber, 6-1, 6-2. Senta Venkatesh and Jocelyn Chang evened up the match in No. 3 doubles with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kentwood’s Karin Hedlund and Aera Shin.<\/p>\n
Add it up and it all came down to No. 2 doubles, which was nearing its final set when the other results trickled in.<\/p>\n
“I don’t usually like (being in the spotlight) that much, especially when there’s that much pressure,” Madsen said. “I guess sometimes it helps because it makes you focus.”<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, the race for the North crown remains anybody’s game, Kentridge’s Quach said.<\/p>\n
“We’re still tied in first and we’re still alive for a league title,” she said. “We’ll have to fight for that No. 1 spot.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kentwood 3, Kentridge 2<\/b><\/p>\n
No. 1 singles: Tess Manthou, KW, def. Vicky Tran, KR, 6-1, 6-0.<\/p>\n
No. 2 singles: Alyssa Nagai, KW, def. Beth Vanden Heuvel, 6-2, 6-1.<\/p>\n
No. 1 doubles: Kim Quach-Katherine Melville, KR, def. Eliana Spero-Breanna Esber, 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n
No. 2 doubles: Niki Skinner-Camille Madsen, KW, def. Kelsey Robson-Jazmine AhYat, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3;<\/p>\n
No. 3 doubles: Senta Venkatesh-Jocelyn Chang (KR) def. Karin Hedlund-Aera Shin, 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A gut instinct paid off for Kentwood High girls tennis coach Ingrid Bakke. Behind No. 2 doubles tandem Niki Skinner and Camille Madsen, the Conquerors turned back Kentridge 3-2 in a pivotal South Puget Sound League North Division tennis match Tuesday afternoon. Skinner and Madsen provided the performance of the afternoon, overcoming Kentridge’s Kelsey Robson […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19857"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}