Marshall takes third at State in tennis

Marigrace Marshall captured third place at the State tennis Championships in Eugene on Friday and Saturday, May 19-20.

Marshall defeated Rivfka Shenoy of Caitlin Gable 6-3, 6-3 in her first match on Friday and went on to defeat Divneet Kaur, the No. 3 seed from Marist 6-4, 6-3.

Marshall said, “That first match is always hard to get through. Rivfka is a really good player and she hit everything back to me. After that, I was pretty nervous heading into the match with Divneet (Kaur) because I’d lost to her at Districts in a really close match. I won the first set and then struggled in the second set and was down 0-2 but I came back to win 6-3. She’s been my friend for a long time and on any given day it could go either way but today it was a really good match for me.”

Marshall’s two wins on Friday automatically put her in the semifinals on Saturday.

Early Saturday morning Marshall lost 6-0, 6-0 to Kelsey McKenna, the No.1 seed from North Bend.

Assistant Coach Marty Dale said, “Kelsey (McKenna) is from our District and her goal was to go through the tournament without anyone scoring a game on her and she did it.”

Marshall’s final match of the day earned her a third place finish. She defeated Kimmie Knight from Taft in three sets, 6-3, 3-6 and 6-4.

“Marigrace played the best I’ve ever seen her play,” said Dale. “Her last match was really tough. She knew it was going to be a battle and she came out and played some superb tennis.”