UKIAH — After upsetting the No. 1 seeds in the semifinals, the Kelseyville High School girls” doubles team of Mary McCallister and Abby McQueen capped a solid weekend of tennis by beating Middletown”s Ariana Diaz and Elena Garay 6-1, 6-2 in the championship match Saturday during the Coastal Mountain Conference tournament at Mendocino College in Ukiah.
McCallister and McQueen, seeded third in the field, defeated Alondra and Esmeralda Espinoza of Anderson Valley in the semifinals 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
“They were in it to win it,” Kelseyville coach Jeff McLaren said. “They pulled it out and it was amazing.”
The Kelseyville sophomores still had to get past the No. 4-seeded Middletown team in the championship match but needed only the minimum two sets to collect their first CMC title.
McLaren said he”s excited not only for their accomplishment, but that both players have two more years remaining on a Kelseyville team loaded with youth.
“I”ll have my No. 1 (Kyle Schmidt), No. 2 (Max Lehman) and No. 3 (Claire Vargas) singles players back near year along with Mary and Abby,” McLaren said. “We”re definitely going to be contending for the big cup next year.”
Not that this year was bad. Kelseyville shared the CMC title with St. Helena and Middletown.
St. Helena scored the most points during the CMC Tournament, which doesn”t affect regular-season conference standings, finishing with 12 to 10 each for Middletown, Kelseyville, Anderson Valley and Rincon Valley Christian.
While McCallister and McQueen were the only Lake County winners during the two-day tournament, which opened Friday, several other county players advanced deep into the competition in their respective divisions.
Middletown”s Maddie Kucer reached the girls” singles semifinals before losing to Madison Thompson of St. Vincent 6-1, 7-6 (7-2). Briana Schneider of Willits won the other semifinal before beating Thompson 6-2, 6-1 in the finals.
Clear Lake”s Kenny Henninger won two matches in boys” singles before falling to Andrew Hoppe of St. Vincent 6-3, 6-1. Rory Winters of St. Helena beat Hoppe 7-5, 6-2 in the championship match.
In boys” doubles, Kelseyville”s Schmidt and Lehman reached the semifinals after rallying to beat Clear Lake”s Brian Gatton and Nathan Harper 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Drake Mezzanatoo and Colin VanRee of Anderson Valley upset the No. 2-seeded Kelseyville team 6-3, 6-4.
Paul Melhaus and Beau Miller of Rincon Valley Christian defeated Mazzanatto and VanRee 6-1, 6-2 in the championship match.
The match-by-match log of the two-day tournament is on Page A9 under the Prep sports results heading.
