 | | Photo By Alex Tam | | Junior Isaac Wilson hopes to qualify for state for the first time as he is seeded No. 4 in the NWOC. |
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By Alex Tam
It was a banner season for the Wilsonville boys tennis team, going undefeated in league and winning the Northwest Oregon Conference title.
However, the season is far from over.
The Wildcats look to continue their momentum from the regular season, heading into the three-day NWOC district tournament that started Tuesday at the Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation Center.
While Wilsonville coach Joel DeBruhl said his team didn’t set a goal of going undefeated in league early on, it ended up being a tremendous run through league title favorites Century and Glencoe.
“Did it surprise me we finished undefeated in league? Definitely,” DeBruhl said. “At the start of the year, Century and Glencoe looked really, really good and we had some holes to fill in our lineup. We have a much better team than I thought back in February.”
At the district tournament, the Wildcats will have three seeded entrants — one singles and two doubles teams. In singles, junior Isaac Wilson is seeded fourth and will face Century’s Anthony Nguyen in the first round on Tuesday.
Other singles entrants representing Wilsonville are Stuart Lake, who will face Sherwood’s Michael McClesky in the first round, and if victorious, will face the No. 1 seed Stuart Tierney of Glencoe; freshman Adam Mitzel, who will face Parkrose’s David Toscano; and senior Shane Wardle, who will face Parkrose’s Nathan Pham.
Wilsonville’s two seeded doubles teams include senior Tyler Weiss and freshman Cameron Tonning, who are seeded No. 2, and seniors Hayden Dovenberg and David Zaganiacz, who are seeded No. 3.
“If the seeding holds, we have two state-qualifying teams in doubles and a singles qualifier, which is one more doubles team and one more singles player that we had than last year,” DeBruhl said.
Other doubles teams for the Wildcats include junior Taylor Evans and freshman Myles Sorokovsky, and junior Mitch Wilson and senior Josh Hansen.
“Heading into district, we have the expectation that we can win all of our first-round matches,” DeBruhl said. “One of them that could go either way but we expect to qualify a number of people to state.”
DeBruhl also has high hopes of winning the district title as well.
“When you win the regular season and go undefeated, to expect less than that would be going at it with the wrong attitude,” he said.
Wilsonville finished its season 15-0 overall and 14-0 in NWOC play after a 7-1 victory over St. Helens at home to finish the regular season on May 2.
The district tournament concludes on Thursday at 4 p.m.
“It was a fun year,” DeBruhl said. “I had really good kids. It’s easy to have fun when you’re winning all your matches. The kids deserved it. They worked hard all year and they’re all fun kids to be around. It was a fun regular season and hopefully it will continue.”
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