Singles and doubles players from the Greenwave varsity boys and girls teams represented Fallon at the regional competition on Monday, after the competition was rescheduled from Friday due to inclement weather.
Seven will be representing Fallon at the state championships in Las Vegas, including varsity girls Paige Thorn and Izzy Martinez who placed first in doubles in the northern league.
This marks the third year in a row a girls’ doubles team from Fallon has taken the northern title at regionals, and Thorn is particularly excited to be moving on.
“It’s pretty exciting because it’s also my first year of tennis,” Thorn said. “I think it kind of came naturally because I play sports other than tennis, so I’ve relied on my athletic ability. I have no idea how the girls in Vegas are because I’ve never done this before, but I’ve heard they’re pretty good. We’ll go out and try our best though.”
The regionals started in Truckee on Friday, but a rain delay forced the league to finish on Monday in Reno.
Also from the Lady Wave, Kayla Bekiares and Haley Lindsay took fourth place in doubles, while Melanie Nuckolls ranked sixth in the singles tournament knocked out the No. 3 girl in the league from the Truckee Wolverines, captain Aimee LeGrandeur
All three girls from the Wave will be going to Vegas in addition to Thorn and Martinez.
From the boys varsity team, the doubles team of Myles Getto and Eric Sabatino finished third to move on to state.
Getto and Sabatino beat a team from Incline as well as Truckee’s No. 2 doubles team to earn third place, according to coach Jess Nuckolls.
While many may have believed Wave singles star Wei Deng would move on, unfortunately Deng will not be joining the others in Vegas. Though Deng won his first round against Sparks’ No. 1 singles player, Martin Garcia, this pitted Deng against the number one singles player in Northern Nevada, Zach Hoss.
Despite winning 6-2 and 6-0 against Garcia, Deng lost 6-0 and 6-0 in his matches against Hoss.
Nonetheless, coach Nuckolls said that he is excited for the players from both boys and girls varsity players.
“I’m hoping they do well in Vegas,” he said. “It’s a really great tournament. Both the girls and boys did really well, and we’re bringing seven down there total so we’re pretty happy about that. I still feel like they have some tough challenges ahead of them. Both girls and boys in Vegas have some tough players, but I definitely see the possibility we can pull off some upsets.”