Mikalea McCormick, front, and partner Kate Duncan, serving, battle Sparks.
There’s something special happening on the tennis courts this fall.
The Lady Wave knocked off second-place Truckee, 14-4, on Tuesday in Fallon to win the Northern 3A regular-season title and the No. 1 seed for next week’s regional tournament.
“Looking at the team we had, I knew we could go far,” Fallon coach Jessica Nuckolls said about the preseason. “We have some amazing athletes. They proven themselves to be amazing before the season began.”
Fallon swept Sparks and Incline last week to set up Tuesday’s showdown. A Fallon loss would have put both teams with the same record and Truckee would win the tiebreaker based on number of sets won during the season.
But Fallon (9-0), which traveled to South Tahoe on Thursday to conclude the league season, will be in the driver’s seat next week for the postseason team tournament. Fallon will host the No. 4 seed on Thursday at 3 p.m. one of two semifinals with the winners facing off Friday in Reno for the regional championship. Thursday’s winners will also advance to state.
“It’s awesome. It does feel great,” Nuckolls said.
Fallon won all but one doubles match against the Wolverines this week.
The No. 1 team of seniors Izzy Martinez and Kayla Bekiares and No. 2 team of seniors Lana Quint and Paolo Duenas swept their three rounds. Martinez-Bekiares won 6-1, 6-4 and 6-3, while Quint-Duenas won all by the same score, 6-3.
Senior Brooklyn Whitaker and sophomore Jamie Bekiares teamed up to win their only match, 6-3, while senior Mikaela McCormick and Bekiares split (6-0 and 4-6).
Senior Melanie Nuckolls, who missed the beginning of the season with a foot injury, won all three of her singles matches (6-2, 6-2 and 6-2), while senior Sarah Inglis won two out of three (7-5 and 6-0) and senior Delaney Young won one match (6-1).
Fallon easily took care of Sparks, 17-1, on the road last Tuesday before doubling up on Incline, 12-6, in Fallon.
“The weather played a huge factor,” Fallon coach Jessica Nuckolls said of the Incline match. “We had some pretty severe wind.”
Fallon won five of the six matches in the first round and had nine of the 10-required points to win after the second round.
Martinez and Kayla Bekiares, and Quint and Duenas continued their dominance against the Highlanders. Martinez-Bekiares won 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, while Quint-Duenas won 6-0 and 6-4.
McCormick and Whitaker split two matches (1-6 and 6-1) to conclude the match points for Fallon’s doubles teams.
For singles, Nuckolls won both matches (6-1 and 6-1) and Jamie Bekiares split both (4-6 and 7-5). Incline forfeited three singles matches in the third and final round because of the cold.
“That was really a shock. My girls were ready to play,” coach Nuckolls said. “It was kind of sad to see. Of course, we like to win but we like to win the right way with matching out. It was still a win.”
Fallon lost only 1 match against Sparks on the road last week, allowing no more than three game points in their wins.
Fallon boys qualify for postseason
The Fallon boys tennis team couldn’t solve Truckee on Tuesday, losing to the Wolverines, 12-6, on the road.
“It’s one thing to practice with the boys and have boys and girls on six courts but to see them in competition, to see them in that zone with them and their opponent fighting for that point, you see that level of intensity you don’t see in practice,” said coach Nuckolls, who traveled with the boys to Truckee.
Fallon, which dropped to 4-5 on the season, faced South Tahoe on Thursday to conclude the regular season. But the Greenwave will move onto the postseason with next week’s regional team tournament when Fallon travels to the No. 1 seed.
Senior Mattia Astori won two of three singles matches (6-0 and 6-1) and sophomore Trent Nuckolls won one match (7-5). Junior Myles Getto and sophomore Dylan Bowen won two doubles matches (7-5 and 6-0), and junior Thomas Jamieson and sophomore Alex Perazzo won one match, 6-2.
The Greenwave improved from a 12-6 early-season loss to Incline by nearly stealing a win away last week. Fallon dropped a 10-8 decision last Thursday after picking up a forfeit victory over Sparks last Tuesday.
Getto and Astori each won all three of their matches for six of Fallon’s eight points. Getto won 6-3, 6-2 and 6-2, while Astori won his three sets, 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2.
Blake Malkovich and Dylan Kubeny won 6-1 to pace the doubles teams against the Highlanders.