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PHOTO BY BEN MILLER

RETURN TO SENDER. Bellarmine’s Kate Kirkpatrick returns the ball to her opponent, Central Kitsap’s Calla Chun, in a match she won 6-1, 6-3. Kirkpatrick’s win was part of a 4-1 victory in the match for the Lions to give them the Narrows League championship.

Lions win tennis title

By Ben Miller

The Bellarmine Lions and the Central Kitsap Cougars girls tennis teams met April 29 with the Narrows League championship on the line. It was a showdown of two undefeated squads hoping for a title. And it turned out to be more like a game of chess than a tennis match.

Heading into the match, Bellarmine coach Lita Smith said she thought her team would win 3-2, but when Central Kitsap coach Ken Allen came out with a new lineup, things changed. “He changed his lineup and I changed my lineup, so it actually worked out to my benefit,” Smith said.

In the end, the Lions (12-0, 8-0) served to a 4-1 win over the Cougars (11-1, 7-1) to not only win the game, but also to clinch the Narrows League title. Smith said the lineup changes had something to do with that.

“If he had done the lineup that I thought he was going to do it would have been probably 3-2,” she said before adding with a smile, “I outsmarted him.”

Things got off on the right foot for Bellarmine on the No. 1 singles court. Kate Kirkpatrick faced off against Calla Chun and took the match easily, winning in two sets, 6-1, 6-3. It gave the Lions an early 1-0 lead, just needing two more wins to secure a victory.

“I was just focusing on my shots and really just staying under control,” Kirkpatrick said. “She was doing great – everything I hit to her she would hit back, so I just focused on getting it back and getting the winning shot.”

The next court to finish was the No. 3 doubles combination of Kathy Velasco and Maddie Klein. They up-ended the Cougar pair of Aimee Rozier and Nicole Morrison 6-4, 6-3 to get a two set victory of their own. That put Bellarmine on the cusp of victory.

Bellarmine had expected Central Kitsap to run its two best players, Aya Sugimoto and Corinne Wurden, out onto the singles court that day. But instead, the two combined to take on the Lions’ No. 1 doubles combination of Julia Galbraith and Nell Shonnard.

That move worked out well, as the Cougars clinched their only match win of the day. Sugimoto and Wurden defeated Galbraith and Shonnard easily 6-2, 6-3 to get Central Kitsap on the scoreboard with three matches finished, 2-1.

“I thought they would be closer for that match that they played today and I found some things that they need to work on if they are going to play doubles in the postseason,” Smith said about Shonnard and Galbraith.

Needing one more match win to clinch the victory, the Lions turned to No. 2 doubles combination Gina Bloemers and Kathleen Takehara. They notched an easy first set victory 6-0, but fell in the second set 5-7. However, in the final set they were able to avoid the tiebreaker and take the match 7-5.

“They stepped it up,” Bloemers said about their opponent. “They weren’t playing very well in the first set so we took advantage of that, but in the second set they stepped it up and we got nervous.”

Sarah Soriano, playing her first varsity match ever, defeated Brianna Harrison 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 to put the final margin of victory for Bellarmine at 4-1.

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