South Eugene’s girls team wins the state tennis championship, the first in school history

The South Eugene High School girls tennis team won the 6A state championship Saturday, May 23, at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center in Beaverton, scoring 12.5 points in the tournament.

Westview came in second, with 12 points, and South Medford and Sunset were in third place, with 11. Sheldon finished in sixth place with three other teams, scoring 8 points.

It was the first state championship for the South Eugene girls.

Ten of South’s points came from the doubles team of Ellie Cho and Ellie Park, who defeated the Sheldon team of Alyssa Piquette and Hayden Kearney in the doubles final, 6-3, 6-2.

Sydney Chandler won her singles match in the first round, adding 2 points to the South. And the second doubles team of Lily Yao and Ameenah Alrahmani picked up another half point for the Ax by advancing to the semi-finals of the consolation round. That half point turned out to be the winning margin as a team.

Cho and Park were used to playing Piquette and Kearney. The two doubles teams had already met three times during the season, with Piquette and Kearney winning all three, including the district final.

“All season long, Sheldon was the number one team in the state,” said Zach Glauber, the South coach in his second year. “I thought they were by far the best team. We were competitive in the games, but they were just better.”

However, every time South and Sheldon faced off, things got closer.

“Especially in the district finals,” Glauber said. “We had chances, we looked really good and we were competing, but then it just fell apart.”

Piquette and Kearney hadn’t dropped a set all season. So they found themselves in uncharted territory when Cho and Park took the first set on Saturday. In the second set, Park served for the match at 5-3.

Coaches and players celebrate South Eugene’s win at state. Back row, from left: Bob Chandler, Stephanie Chandler, Zach Glauber, Andrei Kleschev. Front row, from left: Lily Yao, Ellie Cho, Ellie Park, Ameenah Alrahmani, Sydney Chandler, Alice Cho Credit: Courtesy of South Eugene Tennis

“I was so stressed,” said Park, a junior. “It was 40-15 and I got a double fault. I thought, ‘Okay, I’ve got to get this one in,’ and I think I missed my first serve, but luckily I managed to drive in the second serve somehow, and (they) missed the return, and then it was over.”

She dropped her racket and hugged the other Ellie.

“It was so surreal,” Park said. “It was such a crazy feeling. I honestly still don’t believe it.”

Park praised her partner, Cho, a senior.

“I think her best shots that day were definitely her return,” Park said. “She had some fantastic returns.”

Their coach said South struggled in the state tournament, beating No. 3 in the quarterfinals and No. 2 in the semifinals before meeting their archrivals in the finals.

“When we got to the finals, it was honestly the best they’ve played all season,” Glauber said. “We were just going to turn off the lights.”

He said Cho and Park, who both played singles last year, are “big hitters from the baseline” and can dictate points from there.

“As a doubles team, I learned how to be aggressive at the net and how to put away volleys,” he said.

South got some help in the team match from another Southwest Conference team, South Medford, whose Alexis Uschold won the singles tie, defeating Westview’s Nikhitha Suresh and holding Suresh to just 8 points.

Eugene’s tennis community turned out in force to cheer on the local players. Glauber, who played tennis at South and graduated in 2010, is now a teaching assistant at Adams Elementary School in addition to coaching. He still plays regularly at the YMCA.

“We even had some people who play at the Y come to watch the games, and they were part of our cheering team,” he said. “It was great. They were loud and we could definitely feel the support.”

Marist dominates girls 4A/3A/2A/1A

Thanks to junior Whitney Hedden, the 4A/3A/2A/1A division singles champion, Marist Catholic girls won the team title by 28 points over Catlin Gabel (19) and St. Mary’s of Medford (15.5).

The Marist boys finished in fourth place in the team competition. Oregon Episcopal was the team winner.

Full results are here.