Shorewood tennis continues to rack up wins; top SW-SC singles duel lasts three and a half hours

Last week the Shorewood boys tennis team continued to rack up wins in the quest for a fourth straight WesCo South league championship banner. The Thunderbirds defeated Mountlake Terrace 7-0 on October 2nd and Shorecrest 6-1 on October 6th.

The T-Birds improved their first place record to 8-0 league and 13-1 overall. Against the Terrace Hawks, they were led in singles by sophomore Chris Cummings' come from behind win at number four and Gunnar Thorstenson's win at number one. Doubles were led by David Antush and Andy Ren at number three.

At Mountlake Terrace
SHOREWOOD 7 MOUNTLAKE TERRACE 0

Singles

1.  Gunnar Thorstenson SW def. Jake Peters MLT 7-5, 6-1
2.  Chris Combs SW def. Alec Ura MLT 6-0, 6-0
3.  Ari Webb SW def. Marck Primavera MLT 6-0, 6-0
4.  Chris Cummings SW def. Anthony Runyan MLT 6-7, 6-2, 10-3

Doubles

1.  Andrew Counter / Steven Lin SW def. Andy Shaw / Markus Nelson MLT 6-0, 6-0
2.  Nate Alexander / Erik Ertsgaard SW def. Andrew Dotty / Drew Daley MLT 6-2, 6-2
3.  David Antush / Andy Ren SW def. Tanner Boe / Graem Carter MLT 6-2, 6-0



It was getting dark as daylight was running out on a three and a half hour duel between two tennis gladiators, Shorewood's Gunnar Thorstenson and Shorecrest's Faiz Kahn. With intense rallies and booming serves they battled. Momentum shifted back and forth as every point was a hard fought win or loss. Thorstenson lost a three set match early in the season and needed to win to even his match up with Kahn.

Kahn matched every shot Thorstenson would hit at him. During the third set between games both seemed to be nearing exhaustion. Thorstenson had two match points serving at 40-15 and leading 5-4 but could not put away the match. Kahn broke back and evened it up and then held his serve to go up 6-5.

Serving for the match Kahn could not hold off his Shorewood opponent. The T-Bird evened up the score with a huge break of Kahn's serve to send the match into a final tie-breaker. The teammates, fans and parents were silent and on the edge of their seats waiting to see what would happen.

Thorstenson took an early 3-1 lead and never gave it back until he hit a powerful serve that Kahn returned into the net.

A team parent said, "People pay to see this kind of high quality and exciting tennis". 

The rest of the T-Birds celebrated a big 6-1 win over their rivals and Thorstenson's great match.

Shorewood can lock up a championship banner with a win on Monday October 9th hosting Edmonds Woodway at 3:30pm.


At Shorecrest
SHOREWOOD 6 SHORECREST 1

Singles

1.  Gunnar Thorstenson SW def. Faiz Kahn SC 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)
2.  Andrew Counter SW def. Christopher King SC 6-1, 6-0
3.  Steven Lin SW def. Micah Glesener SC 6-1, 6-0
4.  Chris Combs SW def. John Burke SC 6-0, 6-0

Doubles

1.  Ben Silber / Reed Tangeman SC def. James Qui / Aden Helland SW   0-6, 6-4, 3-6
2.  Tyler Gettmann / Matt McMillan SW def. David Chen / Sam Rowbotham SC 6-2, 6-3
3.  Max Buma / Bennett Vana SW def. Tyler Keen / Gabe Vogel SC 6-2, 6-2


--Shorewood coach Arnie Moreno