EPHRATA – The Ephrata Tigers boys and girls tennis teams both came out with wins in their matches against the Quincy Jackrabbits on Thursday afternoon. 

“(It was) not an easy match, he gave a good fight,” said Tigers’ Josh Mullings after his match against Jacks’ Jacob Bishop. “Felt like the serves were pretty solid today, but it was a tough one because of the wind.” 

The Tigers’ boys team earned an overall 5-0 victory over the Jacks with Mullings and Corbin Reeve earning 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-0 wins in singles, respectively. The doubles matches all came very close between the two teams, with Ephrata coming out on top in all three. 

“First doubles (was a) total dogfight, 7-5, 7-6 tiebreaker, 7-2 is as close as it gets,” said Tigers’ boys coach Greg Becker. “That Quincy team really has improved since we saw them last, and I think it’s kind of a preview of what we’re going to see at the district tournament.” 

The girls teams had some very tight matches as well, with Ephrata coming up with a 3-2 victory. The Tigers took an early lead with both their first and second doubles matches winning their matches. 

Tigers’ girls second doubles team, Makenna Lutz and Jill Linehan, said they find success in their matches by keeping positive and trusting each other. 

“We know each other really well,” said Lutz. “Knowing each other’s weaknesses or where we need to pick the slack up is really nice.” 

The deciding match was the first singles match that finally ended after three and a half hours of back and forth between Tigers’ Ali Helaas and Jacks’ Caia Williams, with the Tigers coming out. 

“Coach put in my head that I can do this and it really motivated me to the point where I believed that I was going to win this no matter what,” said Helaas. 

That girls first doubles match went on for three sets with Helaas taking the first 7-6, Williams winning in the second 6-4 and the final set going to Helaas 7-6. Tigers’ girls coach Emily Allsopp said that she was very impressed with the abilities shown by her player in the first singles match. 

“I think the biggest lesson of today is that you can be losing so bad that you think that you’re never going to be able to get it back and you can still stay in it and pull out the win,” said Allsopp. 

Despite their losses, the Quincy team remains confident in their abilities. Their matches Thursday showed the team has improved significantly since the start of the season, said Jacks’ boys coach Rollie Ronish. 

“It was just kind of a nice moment with them to say we’ve gained ground on these guys and we’ll probably continue to do that before the end of the season,” said Rollie Ronish.  

Something that Rollie Ronish has been particularly proud of seeing this season is the efforts being put forward by JV players coming out to fill spots on Varsity when needed. In Thursday’s match JV player Quintin Martinez stepped up to fill the role of second singles against Tigers’ Corbin Reeve, which otherwise would have come up as a forfeit. 

“As we got here, he was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll play singles,’ and he’d never done that before,” said the boys coach. 

Jacks' girls successes came when Melany Alcaraz won in second singles and Maria Ortiz and Kimberly Solano won in third doubles to tie the team scores 2-2. Quincy girls’ coach Antonia Ronish said that the biggest lesson from the day was that the girls are starting to trust themselves and their abilities more. 

“We could be a lot more hands-off and just coach them in between crossovers every once in a while,” said Antonia Ronish. “They’re going to be able to use that and coach each other up.” 

As the Jacks head toward the end of the season, Antonia Ronish said the team will be looking forward to many more rematches.  

“This is our third rematch, and we’ve improved every time,” said the girls coach. “So we hope to keep seeing that improvement.” 

Rollie Ronish had the same sentiment for the boys as the boys continue to show off their improvements with each game they play. 

“We’re not done yet and then we’ve got three more weeks until the season-end tournament,” said Rollie Ronish. 

The Tigers' next three games will be on the road as they head toward the end of the season. Becker said the team is very excited for the coming weeks and will continue their push for the league championship. 

“We’re very pleased, but we’re not content until the end,” said Becker. “We really want to be league champs, that’s our goal and we’re going to have to work to get that.” 

Allsopp said that she wants the girls to continue to look at each match individually and make sure they are keeping themselves in the right headspace as they play. 

“We have to go into every match prepared for it to be difficult and a challenge and never expecting the outcome,” said Allsopp. “That’s when you’re going to mess up and lose.” 

Both teams will be on the road Tuesday, with the Tigers facing the Othello Huskies at 3 p.m. and the Jacks facing Ellensburg High School at 4 p.m. 

    Jacob Bishop makes a dash to hit the ball back to his opponent in first singles.
  

    Girls’ first singles match was the last to end going on three and a half hours before Ali Helaas earned the victory.
  

    Caia Williams played strong in the first singles match that went into a tiebreaker set.
  

    Jess Mathis hits the ball in the girls second singles match.
  

    Quincy’s first doubles team with Saidt Alvarez and Manuel Torres played a strong match against Ephrata.
  

    This was Melany Alcaraz’s second game she has played in singles and earned a victory in second singles.
  

    The Tigers’ Jacob Wolther and Charles Flynn played first doubles for Ephrata and earned the win 7-2 in a tiebreaker set.