Last Monday and Wednesday, the boys tennis team competed in and won the 5A Northwest Oregon Conference Districts. Coming off a successful district tournament, five players qualified for the state tournament: Nico Hey, Kyle Schraner, Tony Le, Colin Wong, and Leland Wong.

Both singles players and doubles teams played multiple games in the hot weather, but the team was successful across the board. Almost all of the varsity team made it to the second day of districts, and ten players total made it to the quarter-finals of the tournament. All state qualifiers are juniors other than freshman Colin Wong. 

Singles player Nico Hey won the finals for the singles bracket, along with qualifying for the state tournament. This will be Hey’s third consecutive year competing at the state tournament. As for the doubles, two La Salle teams went against each other to determine the district winner, with Kyle Schraner and Tony Le competing against Colin Wong and Leland Wong. While both teams had already qualified for state, the brother duo, Colin and Leland, won and claimed the title of first for the district tournament. 

The five state qualifiers will be competing at the OSAA State Tournament this week, May 17-19, at the Portland Tennis Center.

The team’s success at districts was anticipated from an overall outstanding season of wins. Senior Stephen Leeb said, “Our season went well and we managed to seed quite a few players for districts.” The varsity team remained undefeated both in preseason and season games. During the preseason, they managed to win against Grant High School, a competitive 6A team. They even defeated the toughest opponent in their league, Wilsonville High School, to officially become the league champions.

Earlier this season, the boys competed in two different central Oregon tournaments, one in Eugene and the other in Redmond, where they played against other 5A teams from around the state. The tournaments offered a chance to play against different competition that some players may face again at the state tournament such as Summit High School. The windier weather and higher altitude in Central Oregon was also a new challenge for the players who had to learn to adjust the way they played tennis.

The team also had a change when Mike Devenney, the past girls tennis coach, became the boys JV tennis coach. This came as a surprise to many since Coach Devenney had just retired from coaching the girls’ team last year. His extensive experience with coaching tennis was a great addition because it ultimately helped the JV boys in their season as well.

The varsity team welcomed several freshmen as several seniors are finishing up their high school tennis careers this year. Andy Nguyen, a senior doubles player, says the end of high school tennis is bittersweet “because I feel like I won’t be able to play tennis again with the boys.”