Islander boys tennis starts postseason hunt

The Mercer Island boys tennis team started the postseason hunt this week after beating Newport and Interlake in the final two matches of the regular season.

Last Friday, the team began the KingCo league tournament at the University of Washington.

In the singles tournament, Zack Elliot beat Jae Min Park of Bellevue in the opening round of the tournament before falling to Dragos Puscalau of Sammamish in the quarterfinals. In the consolation bracket, Elliot faced Austin Chen from Juanita High School, whom he beat before taking on Sho Kato of Liberty in the quarterfinal consolation round. Jordan Smith, seeded into the quarterfinals of the singles tournament as the top player of the tournament to take on Gabe Monfried of Bellevue. Smith won, advancing to the semifinals against Thomas Lowes of Liberty.

In the doubles tournament, Mercer Island’s Max Franklin and Andrew Smith entered as the No. 1 seeded team. The duo beat Chris Weik-Ryan Maio of Liberty in the quarterfinals to take on Ben Liang-Eugene Chon of Bellevue in the semis.

The Islanders’ second doubles team of Matt Sedlacek and Jared Thomas played the first round against Danny Zens and True Vue of Juanita, whom they beat. Sedlacek-Thomas advanced to play Chad Nunn and Andrew Nguyen of Sammamish, the No. 2 seed doubles team of the tournament. The Islanders held out for the win and faced Zach Kosanke-Colin Dresser of Bellevue in the semifinal round.

The final rounds of the tournament were scheduled after Reporter deadline on Tuesday afternoon and the championship matches are scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the University of Washington. The top placers will qualify for the district tournament.

Contact Mercer Island Reporter Reporter Megan Managan at mmanagan@mi-reporter.com or (206) 232-1215 ext. 5054.

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