Tennis: Shorecrest wins Sub-District Doubles title

Ben Silber, Coach Rob Mann, Zaid Khan

Ben Silber and Zaid Khan played some incredible tennis over the past two days to clinch 1st place in doubles at the WesCo South Tournament at Jackson High School on October 22nd and 23rd.

This is the third year in a row that Ben has qualified for districts and he hopes to make it a third year in a row to State. This is the first year for Zaid to play doubles, but he has adapted well. They have developed a strong bond and are a highly effective doubles team despite the limited amount of playing time together.

Silber/Khan played their first match against Lynnwood which had no answer for the powerful groundstrokes and put away volleys that kept coming their way. They only dropped one game in the first match.

Shorecrest continued their dominance in the first set of the second match against Meadowdale, winning it easily 6-0. Meadowdale battled hard in the second set and took the early lead. In fact, Shorecrest was down 3-4, 0-4 with Meadowdale serving. Ben and Zaid were determined not to lose this game and made spectacular shot after spectacular shot to win the next 5 points in a row to even the set at 4-4. Shorecrest carried that seismic momentum shift to win the next two games and secure a spot in the finals.

In the finals, Silber/Khan played against a strong Edmonds-Woodway team. The first set was extremely close the entire way, but SC found a way to win 6-4 with quality serving and solid net play. 

The 2nd set, Silber/Khan made some tactical adjustments and played out of their minds to dominate Edmonds-Woodway 6-0, which earned them the title of WesCo South District Champions. They will advance to the WesCo District Tournament on Tuesday October 29th and Wednesday October 30th at Arlington High School at 1pm.

The rest of the Shorecrest players played well, but just had some incredibly challenging matchups. Calvin Rice did secure a win against Trevor Bushnell from Ferndale, but lost to the #1 seed in the next round, who has a combination of powerful groundstrokes and soft touch. 

Calvin did play a marathon match in his last match, with some rallies going 65 shots in a row. Many of his games went to deuce, but his opponent from Meadowdale just found a way to win more of the critical points.

Shorecrest Doubles Results

1st round

• John Burke / Matthew Gardiner (SC) lost to Daniel Tameishi / Zach White (Meadowdale) 6-2, 6-0
• Ben Silber/Zaid Khan - Bye

2nd round

• Ben Silber / Zaid Khan (SC) def. Samuel Yu /Blake Tablazon (Lynnwood) 6-0, 6-1

Semi-Final

• Ben Silber / Zaid Khan (SC) def. Ben Fahey / Chase Harmon (Meadowdale) 6-0, 6-4

Final

• Ben Silber / Zaid Khan (SC) def. Russell Anderson / Zach Foreman 6-4, 6-0

Shorecrest Singles Results

1st round

• Calvin Rice (SC) defeated Trevor Bushnell (Ferndale) 6-4, 6-1
• Owen Pierce (SC) lost to Sebastian Fernandez 6-0, 6-0 

2nd round

• Calvin Rice (SC) lost to Nicholas Desgrippes (Lynnwood) 6-0, 6-0

Consolation Bracket

• Calvin Rice (SC) lost to Ylli Berisha (Meadowdale) 6-2, 6-2

--Coach Rob Mann