Double trouble: Hazen tennis takes down Renton

Redhawks went 3-1 in singles, but couldn’t put away Highlanders in doubles.

By Benjamin Ray • April 19, 2024 6:40 pm

3A KingCo tennis is a gauntlet against schools like Lake Washington, Bellevue and certainly Mercer Island. So the Hazen Highlanders girls tennis team has had to adapt to compete — and the girls played at Renton High School against the Redhawks in some thrilling matches.

On April 18, Hazen defeated the Redhawks by the slimmest 4-3 margin, and after the singles matches, it looked bleak for the Highlanders.

Renton dominated in the singles part of the competition — just Megan Ngo defeated Renton’s Michelle Arjona-Reyes 6-3, 6-2 for the Highlanders on the solo side.

Renton put themselves in a great position to win the match, taking the other three singles matches. Elisse Mejia defeated Katie Tang in arguably the closest match of the competition. It needed to go to a 10-point tiebreaker where Mejia narrowly beat out Tang. Tang won the first set 6-3, but Mejia roared back closing out the second singles contest, 6-2 10-8.

Renton’s Lucianna Mallette was able to hold on against Emily Nguyen for the Highlanders. Mallette won with relative ease in the first set 6-2, but Nguyen stormed back in the second set. Malette held off the rush and closed out the second set 7-5.

The final victory was Renton’s Alyssa Yun, who defeated Megan Lui from Hazen 6-3, 6-4.

Hazen’s doubles trio caused a lot of problems for the Redhawks. In each of the three doubles matches, Hazen didn’t lose a single game. The Highlanders’ doubles teams played 40 games and lost a total of four. In first doubles, Hazen’s Sienna German and Emily Kissen defeated Renton’s top duo of Teagan Petek and Heidi Ngo (6-0, 6-1). Gretchen Freer and Michelle Borodyanski defeated their opponents Leanna Monillas and Besy Savellano 6-0, 6-2. For third doubles, Hazen’s Ava Chinn and Jasmin Wong took down Jessica Gutierrez-Ramirez and Citlaly Chuc-Carrillo 6-0, 6-1.