Fullhart advances to state in boys tennis

Ben Fullhart (No. 1 singles) earned a fourth-place finish at the district tennis tournament in Medford on Monday and Tuesday, May 10-11. Fullhart will compete at the state tournament, which will be held at the University of Oregon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 20-22.

Fullhart dominated his first two matches at the district tournament and defeated Arron Bellini (No. 4 singles) from Henley 6-0, 6-1 and Kevin Payne (No. 1 singles) from Hidden Valley 6-3, 6-3.

Ben's quarterfinal match against Nathan Kahler, the No. 4 seed from North Bend, was undoubtedly the biggest match of Ben's young career to date. The first set went back and forth until they found themselves in a tiebreaker. Ben built on his 3-2 lead and won the tiebreak 7-4, and earned him a win in the first set. In the second set, with the score 2-1, Kahler started to cramp and Ben was able to win 6-2 and take the match.

Fullhart said, "It was close the whole time. When I won the tiebreaker it swayed the momentum of the whole match."

Fullhart lost in the semi-finals. Ben was defeated 1-6, 0-6 by Al Fehr, the No. 1 seed from Henley. Fullhart earned a fourth-place finish and a berth to the state tournament.

Coach Garth Tosello said, "Ben was not really challenged on the first two matches. In the third round against the No. 4 seed Ben was pushed for the first time. He did a great job controlling the tie break and continued to force his opponent to make errors. His opponent became fatigued and cramped up in the second set. Ben had good effort against Al Fehr, but Al was on fire, especially his forehand."

Fullhart is thrilled he qualified for the state tournament.

"I'm very excited to see the competition at a high level and see how I stack up against the better guys," said Fullhart.

Singles players Luke Gnos, Jared Schneider and doubles players Sean Tosello and Colby Gilmore also did well at the district tourney.

Gnos (No. 2 singles) lost 5-7, 2-6 to Adam Escoto of North Bend in his first match of the tourney. Gnos went into the consolation bracket and won his next two matches. Luke defeated Alex Pendell (No. 1) of Marist 8-6 and went on to beat Bart Celie (No. 4) of Canyonville 8-3. Gnos lost to teammate Jared Schneider in the consolation semi-final 6-8.

"Beating the No. 1 singles player from Marist was Luke's highlight for the year," said Tosello. "Solid serving and well-placed ground strokes was the key to Luke's win."

Schneider (No. 3 singles) was defeated 6-7, 6-1, 2-6 by Kevin Johnson (No. 4) from North Bend in his first match. Jared went into consolation and won his next three matches. Jared beat Josh Faust (No. 2) from Hidden Valley 8-5 and went on to beat Peter Reihlman (No. 3) from St. Mary's 8-1. Schnedier defeated Luke Gnos 8-5 in the consolation semifinals and then fell 1-8 to Cody Phillips (No. 1) of St. Mary's in the consolation finals.

"Jared did a great job keeping the ball in play and hitting passing shots when players came to the net," said Tosello. "Making it to the consolation finals is a very good achievement for Jared."

Gilmore and Tosello beat two No. 1 doubles teams on their way to the semi-finals. Colby and Sean lost 2-6, 6-7 (4-7) to Brandon Kruk and Loc Nguyen (No. 4 seed) from Canyonville in their first match. Gilmore and Tosello went on to win the next two in consolation. The duo defeated John Abruzzini and Bulmaro Mendoza (No. 1) of Hidden Valley 8-4 and then beat Danny Kim and Tylor Peterson (No. 1) of St. Mary's 8-3. Gilmore and Tosello lost 5-8 to Chris Gates and Jordan Hughes (No. 4) of Marist in the semi-consolation round.

Tosello said, "After the first day's rain delay they both started slow and it cost them a win in the first round match. In their last match the Marist team was much stronger than their No. 4 doubles position indicated but our team still had a shot at the consolation finals."

Tosello added, "Overall, Sisters had 13 wins and 11 losses. This was a good showing for our young team. With just two, maybe three new players next year, Sisters should have a shot at winning districts."