Coronado boys, Faith Lutheran girls advance to 4A tennis semifinals

Coronado boys coach David Willingham wasn’t sure exactly what to expect against an unfamiliar opponent at the Class 4A state tennis tournament on Wednesday in Reno.

The Cougars singles player put him at ease early.

Coronado won eight of the nine singles sets en route to a 14-4 win over Spanish Springs at Bishop Manogue.

“Coming north to play a team from Reno, you don’t know what they have,” Willingham said. “You’re not sure what they’re going to come up with. You’re always concerned where the wins would come from, but I saw our singles players were in really good shape, so we felt really comfortable after that first round.”

He felt even better after the second round when Ethan Quandt, Sebastian Frace and Zachary Sullivan each won their sets 6-0 to help the Cougars take a 10-2 lead and clinch the win.

Quandt and Frace each went 3-0 in singles, and Jonah Blake and Aiden Benoualid teamed to go 3-0 in doubles for Coronado (14-2), which plays Palo Verde (17-0) in the semifinals at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday at Manogue.

Girls

Faith Lutheran’s girls took a 9-3 lead after two rounds on the way to a 10-8 victory over Galena in a Class 4A girls state quarterfinal at Manogue.

The Crusaders swept the doubles sets in the first two rounds before clinching the 10th point and summoning their reserves for most of the third round. Kennedy Barr and Arianna Van Houweling were 3-0 in doubles, and the combination of Kenadee Semenik and Jade Mayweather was 2-0.

Mountain Region singles champion Mira Filiberti also was 2-0.

“Good for us to get up here and get a match under our belt and get acclimated to the altitude,” coach Jeff Foley said. “We started putting in some of other players. They made the trip up here to state, and we wanted them to get some experience.”

The Crusaders (21-3) will take on defending state champion Coronado at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday for a berth in the Class 4A championship.