Reseska still alive in state tennis tournament

BOISE — Freshman Neva Reseska is the only Sandpoint tennis player still alive after day one of the 4A state tournament.

Reseska is in the girls singles consolation quarterfinals after going 2-1 on Friday.

Boys doubles pair Josh Embree and Christian Story, girls doubles team Olivia Petruso and Denali Terry and mixed doubles pair Tyler McNamee and Kailee McNamee all saw their state journeys come to an end.

"Not quite what we had hoped," head coach Kent Anderson said, "but it's a great experience for all these guys, that's for sure."

The state tennis tournament turned into quite the mess after the first and second round matches as a four-hour rain delay forced matches to be consolidated and moved to different sites. Anderson said it was a crazy ordeal.

Due to the rain delay, matches were changed from three sets to eight-game pro sets. This shortened matches and left little room for error.

"If things aren't going your way in an eight-game pro set, it kind of ends quickly on you," Anderson said.

Reseska battled Miranda Austin, the No. 1 player in the state, in her opening match and fell 6-1, 6-0.

Anderson said the score wasn't indicative of how close the match was. He said points were long and a lot of the games featured a deuce. Reseska gave the top player quite the fight.

"I don't think the No. 1 seed expected to get pushed like this," Anderson said. "I think she thought she was going to be able to roll through the first round and she had to play hard."

Entering the tournament, Embree and Story had hopes of placing at state, but back-to-back losses derailed those plans. The duo cruised in their opening match, 6-2, 6-2, but in the quarterfinals they lost a hard fought match, 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. Then in the consolation bracket they lost 8-4.

Petruso and Terry dropped their opening match 6-2, 6-1 and then fell in the consolation bracket 8-6.

The McNamees bounced back from an opening round defeat with an 8-4 win in the consolation bracket. Unfortunately, they were taken down 8-0 in their next match.

Anderson said the whole team will be cheering on Reseska on Saturday.

"She's our only hope right now, so we'll all be supporting her," he said. "We hope it's a long day."