The Mustangs’ two singles entries, Jeff Jou and Dhruv Balakrishnan, played well last Friday and Saturday at the 4A Kingco Tennis Tournament, held at the University of Washington’s Nordstrom Tennis Center.
Jou, who played No. 1 singles this year, was seeded third for the event and never gave up a set in his first two matches, beating Kevin Zhao of Eastalke 6-1, 6-4 and then sweeping Nate Billett of Woodinville 6-0, 6-0 before getting outmatched by No. 2 seeded Aman Manji of Skyline 6-1, 6-0.
Balakrishnan won three matches and made it to the semifinals himself before falling to No. 1 seed and eventual champion Vincente Varas from Eastlake 6-2, 7-5, which set up an all-Redmond battle for a winner-to-state, loser-out berth.
In a very tight match that went to an extra game, Jou beat Balakrishnan 6-4, 7-5 and will play the No. 3 seed from the WesCo league for the district’s final state berth on Saturday.
Kingco 4A doubles action finishes on Wednesday, also at the Nordstrom Tennis Center.
MUSTANGS RALLY TO BEAT EDMONDS-WOODWAY 34-28
After four straight league losses, the Mustangs football team battled back strong to a 34-28 win against Edmonds-Woodway at home last Friday night. The Mustangs were facing a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter of the non-league contest, but rallied back with four scores – two short runs by quarterback Michael Conforto, a three-yard pass from Conforto to tight end Conner Floan, and an 18-yard run by Nico Shewey, to take a 28-14 lead after three quarters.
The Warriors fought back with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to tie the score, but the Mustangs would have the final say as Conforto scored for the third time on a 5-yard keeper to put Redmond ahead for good.
With the win, the Mustangs improved to 3-5 overall and will take on Ballard (0-5, 1-7) on Friday in the season finale at 7 p.m. at Redmond High School.
GRIZZLIES SUFFER FIRST LOSS OF SEASON
In a non-league game against Christian Faith, the Bear Creek volleyball team was just points away from being swept, but ended up losing a tight match in a tiebreaker, 3-2, on game scores of 26-24, 25-17, 22-25, 21-25 and 15-12.
For the Grizzlies, Domonique DuBois earned a team-high 12 kills and
16 digs, followed by Makena Schoene and Bethan Meyers with eight kills each.
Michele Brown recorded 39 assists and Elizabeth Fernandez notched a season-high four blocks.
With the loss, the Grizzlies remained unbeaten in Sea-Tac 2B league play at 9-0 and dropped to 10-1 overall.
RED-HOT BEAR CREEK BOYS BLANK TACOMA BAPTIST
The Grizzlies made a statement on Thursday night, clinching the Sea-Tac League Championship by shutting out the defending state champion Tacoma Baptist Crusaders 2-0 at Tacoma Baptist.
Nima Abtahi opened up the scoring with a shot off Tom Postings’ assist in the 31st minute, and Mark Phillips powered a shot home off Lucas Peterson’s feed for an insurance goal mid-way through the second half.
Jamie Clough extended his own single-season shutout record with his 11th of the season.
With the win, the Grizzlies are now 9-0-0 in league play and 14-0-0 overall.
LADY OWLS SWEEP SEATTLE ACADEMY
After the Overlake volleyball squad snuck past the Cardinals 25-23 in the opening game of their match, Seattle Academy was no longer a threat as the Owls cruised to a 3-0 sweep by game scores of 25-11 and 25-10 at The Overlake School on Thursday night.
Kirsten Parris led the offense with 11 kills, followed by Lauren Bazley with eight kills and three aces. Susannah Halbrook also slammed three aces.
With the win, Overlake improved to 4-6 in 1A Emerald City League play (6-8 overall).
