For the Federal Way High High School boys tennis team, time joined its side on Tuesday, September 8, at the Eagles’ home nest.
More than three hours after the beginning of the competition, the No. 3 doubles tandem of Alex Lewis and Gaurov Gupton closed out its Decatur counterparts, Nelson Atkinson and Josh Park, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, in a tension filled marathon match to send the Eagles soaring to a 3-2 regular season opening verdict against the Gators.
After splitting the first two sets, Decatur’s Atkinson used excellent volleying to fireball his team to a 4-0 third set advantage. Decatur came off the deck with a run of its own to tie the set at 4-4. Both teams held serve before Federal Way gained a service break. Neither team could take full advantage of the openings presented throughout the match.
A Gupton volley for a winner and Lewis’s backhand through the middle set up a love game for the match.
“They really battled back after being down 4-0,” observed Eagle head coach Jerome Collins. “I’m proud of our team. They made good rallies until they turned them into volleys. Our freshman Lewis stepped up and sustained until Gupton was able to keep the ball in play. Both found their best shots. I take my hat off to them.”
This day’s drama began with Bradley Lewis and Matt Havili quickly stroking past the Decatur duo of Darrel Belvin and Matt Crayhan, 6-0, 6-1, in No. 2 doubles. The straight set win was founded on basics.
“We stayed consistent and got our first serves in play,” said Havili. “We didn’t have many unforced errors.”
Federal Way No. 1 doubles players Alex Ward and Dalton Alvey continued the Eagle opening surge with a 6-3, 6-2, victory against Alex Eddy and Ryan Westerdahl.
“We worked together pretty well,” stated Alvey. “Our serves were the best thing because we held serve most of the time.”
In a long, drawn out battle of baseliners featuring a mixture of spins and slices mixed in with an occasional drop shot, Gator Harry Choi edged out Ben Blackner 7-6 (7-3) in the first set of No. 2 singles and rolled to a 3-0 second set lead. Inexplicably, Choi lost his poise while Blackner worked his way to trail only 5-4 before holding serve for a 5-5 deadlock. Unforced errors dominated the stage until Choi held serve for a 6-5 lead.
A return error by Blackner finally sent Choi into victory.
Choi’s observations mirrored the action of both combatants.
“I was playing too safely and hitting everything into the net,” he admitted.
Young freshman Abishack Morali’s all-around game prevailed in the No 1 singles for a 6-3, 6-2, Decatur win to square the proceedings at 2-2 as the prelude to the No. 3 doubles decider in the gathering dusk time.
