EPHRATA – The Ephrata Tigers girls tennis team went on the road and pulled off a tight 3-2 win over the Ellensburg Bulldogs on Thursday. It was a hard-fought win.

The Tigers would drop both singles matches, putting them in a 0-2 deficit. From there, it would be left to the doubles matchups. However, head coach Emily Allsopp was confident.  

“I told my girls that we need to just play the tennis that we know we can play and focus on the basics,” she said.  

The Tigers stayed true to that goal in their doubles matches, winning all three to secure a comeback victory. The first doubles match was won in two sets by Erika Morford and Ali Helaas.  

It was much closer in doubles two and three, and it took the Tigers three sets to pull off the comeback. Jessica Mathis and Lilly Brewer had to stick it out the longest against the Bulldogs. They won the first set 6-4, dropped the second 3-6, then retook momentum, winning the third set after being down 0-4 and fighting back to 6-4.

Allsopp had high praise for the duo.  

“They played probably the greatest game of tennis I've ever seen them play in my whole entire life,” Allsopp said. “Their resilience and ability to push past a second set loss is really impressive and honestly, really important and necessary when it comes to tennis.”