By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
It was an awesome ride that Moapa Valley High School students Andy Beckstrand and Koby Frei had this season.
Last weekend, the doubles tennis team became the first in MVHS history to play in the Nevada State Tennis tournament. They qualified by taking second place in the regional tournament two weeks ago at Darling Tennis Center. They started that tournament with wins over Evangelo and Kermode of Vo-Tech 6-4 6-2, Fitamo and Otis, Justin Ong and Teo Tabar 6-2 6-1 of Clark. Chang and Capp 6-0 6-0 and in the Championship match they lost to Christian Ong and Marcus Pasimo of Clark 7-5 6-2.
Also in the tournament was the team of Chase Hadley and Darren Hardy who were beaten in the first round 6-1 6-1 by Morimando and Zimmerman of Spring Valley.
Nathan Barraza and Chase Kruse were the third seed in the Sunrise and made it through the first round with a 6-1 6-1 win over Rodriguez and Robledo of Mojave. Their second round match was a close one which went into a tie breaker in the second game. The first game Moapa Valley lost 6-4, in the second game it was tied 6-6 as Chang and Capp went on to win it.
Three other Moapa boys played in the singles and were beaten in the first round: Tyler Peterson, Jacob Hauver and Hayden Postma.
On the girls side, in girls doubles Tayianna Garcia and Devoney Cooper were beaten in the first round. Fifth seed Riley Fullmer and Kinzi Robinson made it to the second round with a win in the first then a tough 3 game match 6-0, 4-6, 6-4 against Issacs and Vohhra took them out of the tournament.
Hanna Rust and Lindsey Leavitt, the top doubles team in the Sunrise, made it to the third round or quarter finals before they were beaten by Isaac and Vohra 6-0 6-3. They had beaten Huynh and Smidt of Sierra Vista in the first round 6-2 6-0, then Sanders and Castro of Mojave before their loss.
In the singles tournament Brighton Crawford was beaten in the first round by Foley of Faith Lutheran. Eighth seeded Lisa Bruckman beat Marie Langer 6-2 6-2 before losing to Andrar Stancia 6-1 6-2 in the second round.
Second seeded Bodjel Gijzen won her first match against Virgin Valley’s Jackie Hughes 6-0 6-0. Then she beat Busicescu of Clark in a tough three sets 4-6 7-6(4) 6-3. She was beaten in the quarter finals by Daulai of Lake Meade 6-1 6-3.
In the State tournament where the top eight teams participated, Beckstrand and Frei started by beating Getto and Sabatino of Fallon 6-2 6-2. In the semi-finals match on Saturday they beat Marin and Sullivan of South Tahoe 6-3 6-4. Later that afternoon they played a rematch of the regional championship and came up short 6-2 6-1 as they became the state runner-ups.
Clark High School won the team tournament for the 3rd time in three years.
These two young men have gone further than any Pirate team in Moapa Valley Tennis history. They have worked hard over the past years to accomplish this feat. They were competing against players who had personal professional coaches which makes the feat even more impressive.
What’s more, Beckstrand has been dealing with a painful shoulder and yet pushed his way through it. That meant Frei had to step up his game even more. Head Coach Donna Forrester said she has been floating on cloud nine as she has been so excited for these young men.
“We had such an outstanding season this year!” Forrester said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more from Andy and Koby.
They worked so hard and wanted this so bad, they deserved it and earned it. I’m so proud of them”.
1 thought on “MVHS Tennis Goes Where No Pirate Has Gone Before”
Great job Andy and Koby. As an opposing coach, it was always a pleasure to watch these two work together and play doubles the right way. I have seen then improve as players since they were 9th graders, and to see them finish their career second in the state makes me very happy. Congrats to them, and to Coach Swanson, and a great accomplishment.