BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson senior Sarah Asp, 17, returns a serve during her doubles match against Douglas High School on Thursday.
No matter what the sport, Rob Streeter has been around long enough to know what the Carson-Douglas rivalry is going to be like.
Streeter, who also coaches the Douglas boys basketball team, brought his girls tennis team to the CHS courts on Thursday for a spirited match with the Senators before Carson prevailed 10-8.
"It was a typical Carson-Douglas match," Streeter said. "It doesn't matter if it's basketball or tennis, it's going to come down to 10-8, one point here or there. We had some great play."
Carson won the battle for third in the Sierra League and the right not to face Galena in the first round of the Northern 4A playoffs. The Senators will likely travel to McQueen for a first round playoff match on Tuesday while Douglas will travel to Galena. "We get to play again," Streeter said.
Lisa Midboe and Christa Casci swept all six of their singles matches for Carson while Kristi Jilk and Cescriana Cegelia and Amanda Lugone and Madison Vander Byle swept all six of their doubles matches for Douglas. The difference of the match came when Elise Hansen was able to pull out a come-from-behind 6-4 win in singles.
"It was too close for comfort," Carson coach Diane Baker Roberts said. "Midboe and Casci, you can't thank them enough for what they did. His doubles came through where I didn't expect it."
Midboe won 6-1 and Casci won 6-2 in the first round while the Tigers' Morgan Barone beat Elizabeth Gohr 6-3. Douglas won two-of-three matches in doubles in the first round to force a 3-3 tie after round one. All three matches could have gone either way.
Carson's Emily Wang and Kristin Charles beat the Tigers' Lauren Seymour and Sarah Barnhill 7-5, Jilk and Cegelia beat Jenni Hood and Kristi Philippi 7-5 and Lugone and Vander Byle beat Sarah Asp and Michelle Mauer 6-4.
It was more of the same in the second round. Midboe and Casci both won 6-0. Hansen trailed Sammi Barnes 1-4, but came back to win 6-4. Carson's Meagan Carter and Alyssa Corda beat Seymour and Barnhill 6-3.
But Douglas wasn't done, yet. Jilk and Cegelia won 6-2 and Lugone and Vander Byle overcame an 0-3 deficit to beat Hood and Philippi 6-3. At 3-3, they broke serve at 0-40 and went on to win the match.
Carson still led 7-5 going into the final round and Hood and Philippi made up for what happened in the second round by essentially clinching the match at the same time as Casci.
Casci used a deadly drop shot with backspin to take control of her match, but Barnes wouldn't go down easily. She saved two match points before Casci finally prevailed 6-2 just as Hood and Philippi won 6-2 to give Carson the needed 10 points.
Midboe also won in the final round 6-2. For Douglas, Patty Salazar won 6-1, Jilk and Cegelia won 6-3 and Lugone and Vander Byle won 6-1.
In other matches for Carson, Amanda Nelson and Llalani Ibarra won 6-3, Stephanie Adamson and Molly Champion won 6-3, Amanda Otto and Hannah Shaw won 6-0 and Breanna Collings and Kristen Howard won 7-6 (7-2) in doubles while Alejandra Melgarejo and Carrie Linn, Julie Stroup and Elizabeth Linn and Jessica Adams and Adamson also played well in doubles.
CARSON BOYS 12, DOUGLAS 6
Carson wrapped up second in the Sierra League and a first round home playoff match on Tuesday at CHS with the win at Douglas. As expected, Carson dominated in doubles while Robert Shawhan dominated in singles for Douglas.
"The doubles did very well, which is what I expected," Carson coach Pat Houlihan said. "Robert is a machine."
Shawhan won 6-2, 6-0, 6-0. Jeff Van Epps won both of his matches in singles for Carson, winning 6-1, 6-1. Also in singles for Carson, Spencer Brinson won 6-1 and Thomas Pringle won 6-0. The Tigers' James McLaughlin beat Ben Henningsen 6-4 and Matthew McLaughlin won 6-1 for Douglas.
In doubles for Carson, Bryt Lewis and Brad Cobler swept, winning 6-0, 6-1 and beating Trevor Mitchell and Josh Vega 6-4. Nick Smallman and Chris Wear also swept for Carson, beating Mitchell and Vega 6-4 and winning 6-0, 6-2. In addition, James Pelz and Jordan Rogers won 6-3, 6-0 for Carson and Mitchell and Vega won 6-2.