Boys tennis finishes third at district

The entire boys tennis team contributed points to earn a third-place finish at the district tournament in Medford on Tuesday and Wednesday, May 6 and 7. Marist took first place and North Bend was runner-up.

Evan Sims and Shyama Ellis (No. 3 seed) earned a second-place finish and will advance to state. Sims and Ellis had a bye in their first round, won their next three matches and then lost in the championship match. The duo fell 7-6, 6-4 to Ryan Romania and Zack Steele (No. 1 seed).

"Evan and Shyama had their best serving performance of the season. Earlier in the season they were both double faulting and today they got the ball in play a high percentage of the time," said Coach Boyd Stuwe.

Dylan Stuwe and Will Newport (No. 2 seed) got a first round bye and then lost in the second round. Stuwe and Newport finished runner-up in the consolation round.

Freshman Scott Everson (No. 4 singles) lost his first round in a brutal three setter.

"Scott was up the entire way and was at match point to win five times, but lost them all," said Stuwe. "He had the guy beat five times but just couldn't close."

Everson played more total games than anyone else on the Outlaws squad. Everson played 71 games on the first day and every match was tight. Everson lost in the quarterfinals in the consolation round.

Charlie Phillips played his best tennis of the season. Phillips lost in a close match to the eventual fourth-place finisher.

"Charlie had a great end to his season," said Stuwe. "In his last match he played his opponent to three sets and honestly, the match could have gone either way."

Stuwe said, "All the guys played great first-round matches, but then they faced much tougher competition in the second round, especially the doubles teams."

Sims and Ellis will head to the state tournament this week. The tournament will be held at the Eugene Swim and tennis Club from Thursday through Saturday, May 15-17.