High School tennis opens season with rain and unofficial scores

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) - The high school fall sport most affected by the weather in Fairbanks is tennis, as any pooling of water or unsafe conditions on the court can call off a match.

That is how it went Wednesday, the original start date for the tennis season in the Interior, but rain pushed the matches back to Thursday.

By Thursday, the consistent precipitation the week prior prevented many of the players having the 10 required practices necessary to compete, leading to only two official matches between Lathrop and Monroe at the Dan Ramras Community Tennis Courts.

Monroe’s Oliver Pender won 6-4, 6-0 in a boys singles match, while Lathrop’s Darshan Nautiyal teamed up with Theodore Kenna to take the boys doubles 6-3, 2-6, 10-8.

The remaining matches were defaulted, leading to a 6-1 Lathrop victory. First year Lathrop head coach and new Fairbanksan Megan Young, who played tennis collegiately at Southern Arkansas, expressed how she hopes to impact the local tennis community.

“I have been here for about a year and a half, so I know in Fairbanks doesn’t have tennis all year round and I would like to change that some if we can get some offseason practices, that way we can get the kids playing all year round and not just six months out of the year,” Young said. “A lot of them are ready to compete, [I am] sending a few to Anchorage probably in September to play with different competition.”

Out in North Pole, the visiting West Valley Wolfpack defeated the Patriots 5-2 to open their season. The Wolfpack took two official single matches, with Logan Reinheller (6-2, 7-6, 8-6) winning the boys and Robin Raskon (7-5, 6-2) taking victory in the girls. North Pole saw its first official victory when the duo of Aaron Ziesel and Riley Perry defeated West Valley’s duo 6-3, 6-2. The Red and Gold claimed the mixed doubles event with Aidan Payan and Morgan Ely winning 6-4, 6-2.

Weather continued to impact the first week of tennis, as Hutchison was set to start their season Thursday against West Valley and Lathrop was set to visit North Pole, but both were canceled due to the weather. On the slate for next week, West Valley/Lathrop and North Pole/Hutch on Tuesday, while Monroe will take on the Wolfpack and the Patriots will face Hutchison on Thursday.

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