By Gerardo Bolong
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

TUKWILA - Domination of the singles matches propelled the Highline High School boys tennis team to a 5-2 Seamount League win against Foster on Thurs., Oct. 16.

The Pirates improved to 5-5 league and 5-6 overall while the Bulldogs dropped to 2-7 league as well as the same overall. The league tournament begins on Oct. 23 after school classes end for the day and will follow the same schedule on Friday at the Valley Ridge Park courts in SeaTac. The tourney will continue on Saturday, if necessary.

"We've got a mixture of senior and freshman, this year," said Bulldog head coach Sopheak Ngeth. "Or No. 1 doubles has seniors who took up tennis at a later age than your typical seniors."

Jason Hewett posted a 6-1, 6-2, No. 2 doubles win against Foster's Dousiltan Nguyen as part of Highline's singles control.

"I tried mainly to hit to his backhand," said Hewett. "I'd like to get to district and even state."

Tyler Terlouw's 6-0, 6-0, defeat of Araic Papryan added to the Pirate bank of singles wins in the No. 3 match up.

In doubles action, the No. 1 position pairings produced the match of the day in nearly two hours of battle.

Senior Bulldogs Dennis Nguyen and KD Singh pulled out a tight, 6-4, first set victory against Finn Forsberg and Drew Sagmoen before the HHS pair exchanged strokes evenly with the FHS duo to win a 6-4 second set in a similarly fought second set.

Keeping to the theme of equality, the combatants played a super tie-breaker third set in which Nguyen and Singh emerged with an 11-9 win.
Foster won No. 3 doubles behind the tandem of Kenny Do and Aaron Anonuano, 6-3, 6-1, but Highline was able to wrest No. 2 doubles away with David Dinh and Alex Vu taking a 6-2, 6-2, two-setter against Bika Samrat and Dino Suta.

Combined with Charles Erickson's 6-1, 6-3, No. 4 singles defeat of Kanuel Brswa, the Pirates had enough wins for the team victory before Spanish foreign exchange student Martin Temprano-Gomez captured a two-set No.1 singles fray from Armen Popyan to close out the proceedings.
"Overall, today, it was OK," said Highline head coach Scott Babcock. "Martin is a good player and Jason played well. They're our best chances to get to district. It's a matter of confidence in the post season."