Mercer Island boys head back to the court | Prep tennis preview

Published 9:20 am Tuesday, September 6, 2011

In a fragmented season, with league play in the fall and playoffs in the spring, it would be easy for any local boys tennis team to lose sight of its goals.

For returning 3A state champions Mercer Island, they are trying not to think about it too much.

“I think there might be expectations that we can do it because we hadn’t won state in six years — I think if these guys work hard, we have a very good chance of winning back-to-back state titles,” said returning head coach Jamie Dieveney.

Long before that can even be a focal point for the team, they first have many steps to take.

“We lost nine seniors last year, but we had a lot of returning, strong players,” said the coach. “The big thing is we have two real standouts as freshman and then we also have three other freshman who made the team, which is pretty rare to have five. There was a high level freshman influx this year.”

Those freshman will be led on and off the court by the Islanders’ three captains, seniors Jordan Smith and Jeremy Chow, and junior Zack Elliot. They have helped the team, already, Dieveney said, by creating a strong work ethic at practice.

“I feel there is a natural work ethic for these guys who have come out. They’ve been practicing with intensity from the get-go and these guys want to practice hard, and I think we’ll see great results from that,” he said. “They have been intense at practice, and it has trickled down to the other guys.”

For the captains, they said they want the team to have fun, but also work hard.

“It’s going to take hard work at practice,” said Chow of what will be key for the team to keep winning.

With that hard work, the team hopes to secure their second state title in as many years, and hopefully, Elliot said, by a larger margin than last year.

For their coach, getting to that spot is going to take finding the right doubles pairing.

“Working on their doubles, a lot of these guys like to play singles and having chemistry and finding that. I think that will definitely help us win state. It’s hard to win with just a bunch of singles players,” he said.

The Islanders will begin their season playing at Mount Si on Sept. 13.

“It’s our first match, and I want us to get off to a good start,” said Smith. Overall, though, Dieveney said he wants them to be focused on the match of the day, not looking too far ahead.

“We’re going to treat each match the same. I think that I don’t know if there is one in particular, so we’ll treat them all the same. I think they’ll be ready to compete come match day,” said the coach.

The Islanders will host their first home match of the season against Lake Washington on Sept. 20 at 3:45 p.m. at the tennis courts at the high school.