Girls tennis wraps up season

The Lady Outlaws wrapped up district play on Thursday, May 9, at Black Butte Ranch. Four players, Ramsey Schar, Ellie Rush, and doubles pair Lauren Fitzke and Sophia Silva all competed in the consolations.

Schar and teammate Rush had to face each other at the start, and Ramsey came out on top 8-5 in the pro set. Ramsey went on and lost 8-2 to Liesel Rutherford of Stayton in the semifinals.

Coach Alan VonStein said, “Ramsey had a phenomenal year, and moved from No. 3 singles to No. 1 singles. She’s very intense, and a very coachable young lady who has a bright future as she will go into her senior year next year.

“Ellie has never played tennis until this year,” added VonStein. “She’s a very balanced athlete and also very coachable. She tied for the most wins in the regular season with Kendra (Sitz). I look forward to her coming back as a junior next year.”

Fitzke and Silva beat Sana and Collins of Cascade 8-3, and went on to dominate play in their 8-1 win over sisters Kuenzi and Kuenzi of Stayton to advance to the championship match.

VonStein said, “They were very good at communicating with each other, and they used the doubles alleys with passing shots. They also had good consistent serves throughout the game.”

The Outlaws duo fell 6-4, 3-6, in the championship match of the consolations to Olivera and Mambo of Madras, and finished runner-up.

Three days earlier, on day two of the tournament, doubles duo Kendra Sitz and Hallie Schwartz were eliminated. The combo lost the first set, 4-6, to the Skinkis twins of Philomath. Kendra and Hallie fought back and dominated play in the second set and posted a 6-3 win, but fell 1-6 in the final set for the loss.

VonStein said, “They just lost some focus there at the end, but they had an extremely successful season. They played very well together and both developed as good tennis players, and are fabulous athletes both on and off the court.”

Of the season Sitz said, “It was super-fun. I’d only picked up a racket a couple of times before I joined the tennis team, so it was great to get to District. It was a big surprise, and I wasn’t expecting it.”

VonStein told The Nugget that overall the Lady Outlaws had a very successful season and finished league with an 8-4 record.

“The season was very productive, although challenging with the weather and the late start,” said VonStein. “We had 23 girls come out for tennis, 12 of which had never touched a racket before. The girls showed a lot of promise. As with any sport, they will need to practice their tennis game in the off-season to improve.”