CV boys, girls could challenge for superiority

It’s no surprise the Crescent Valley High and West Albany girls tennis teams are the favorites going into today’s Mid-Willamette Conference district tennis tournament at Timberhill Tennis Center.

Both squads finished with identical MWC records and feature the top singles players in the conference.

No. 2 CV features junior Allison Bostrom, last year’s champion and the 5A state runner-up. Repeating as district champ figures to be more difficult this year, though.

West Albany’s Ilaria Alessi went undefeated in conference play and is the No. 1 seed. She dealt Bostrom her only MWC losses of the season. So Bostrom has plenty of motivation going into the tournament as well.

“Their second meeting went better, so Allison is looking forward to playing her again,” CV coach Sheila Fowler said. “It should be a good match.”

CV’s No. 2 singles player, freshman Charlotte Fisher, is another player to keep an eye on, as is South Albany’s Meagan Resecker. She finished third at the tournament last season, while Fisher went undefeated for the Raiders in MWC play this season.

In doubles play, the competition should be more wide open.

West Albany’s Kendra Patton and Melissa Fortier are the top-seeded duo, while Corvallis’ Claire Freeman and Katie Bauer are second. They finished second last season to CV’s Lauren Wilk and Eleanor Crumme, who graduated.

But the Raiders do have two seeded teams this year: No. 3 Chelsea Smith and Margot Draeger, and No. 8 Heidi Niu and Stephanie Wang.

“We lost our top two doubles teams from last season,” Fowler said. “But a lot of the younger girls have stepped up.”

On the boys side, CHS will be without its top singles player, senior Cody Levien. He suffered a season-ending injury a couple weeks ago, dealing a major blow to the Spartans’ district title hopes.

Instead, the Spartans top player, Steven Chapman will face fourth-seeded Bond Minard of South Albany in the first round, which is a tough draw.

CHS coach Ken Stevenson said the top five seeded players are clearly a cut above the rest of the field, but from then on, it’s up for debate.

The Spartans could have had some players seeded, but Stevenson didn’t want so many player having to take on top seeds right off the bat, such as West Albany’s Michael Baumgartner.

“He’s the heavy favorite,” Stevenson said of Baumgartner. “He went unbeaten this year. He’s a player that makes more winning shots than errors.”

While Baumgartner is expected to win the singles title, he could get a stiff challenge from Crescent Valley’s Kevin Wong, the No. 2 seed.

CV has a good shot at winning the team title. In addition to Wong, Alex Fortune and Elton Chen are seeded 5th and 6th for the Raiders.

They also have two seeded doubles teams in Pat Yun and Michael Sheng (2), and Ben Babbel and Justin Rose. The doubles side should be more wide open.

It’s also where Corvallis could make the most noise. Patrick Prahl and Stan McMurray are seeded seventh, but Stevenson said he has two other pairs that could surprise: Daniel Gradison and Thor Dodson and Parker Wood and Andy Boomer.

To make it to state though, those teams would have to finish in the top four. The top four singles players also advance.

The tournament starts today at 8 a.m with boys doubles play. Admission is free. Girls play starts Thursday at 8 a.m. The finals are Friday beginning at 1:30 p.m.