BREMERTON — The brackets are set for the West Central District 2A tournament, which runs from Oct. 27-28 at the Kitsap Tennis & Athletic Club.
Olympic’s Keaton Dean and Aidan Ortega are the headliners in the doubles tournament as the No. 1 seed after capturing the Olympic League title last week.
Dean and Ortega took on top-seeded Dawson Clark and Ethan Sax of Kingston in the semifinals and easily dispatched their opponents, 6-0, 6-2.
“At the league tournament, they were absolutely dominant,” said Olympic head coach Jon O’Connor. “They weren’t put to three sets in any match, everything was just kind of clicking. Their serve percentage was through the roof, the net play was fantastic, and they played extremely well together.”
O’Connor said Dean and Ortega had previously played the duo from Kingston in a tough match towards the end of the season and were able to carry forward lessons learned from that loss.
In the finals, their opponents were Justus Jagodzinske and Nate Blanchard of North Kitsap and Olympic prevailed 6-4, 6-3. O’Connor said his doubles pair were able to minimize unforced errors and serve extremely well, and that was the key to victory.
“They didn’t beat themselves,” said O’Connor. “They only lost three or four matches all year long, and in at least two of those, they really beat themselves. They had opportunities to win those matches they loss, but unforced errors mounted and they did not serve as well.”
Dean and Ortega have a first-round bye and will face the winner of a match between Sam Nguyen and Nathan Saeturn of Renton, and Dylan Toomey and Paul Bauer of Steilacoom.
Jagodzinske and Blanchard enter districts as the No. 2 seed from the Olympic League and they will face the No. 8 seed from the 2A South Puget Sound League, Grant Cox and Benton Nelson of Fife. The winner moves on to face a pair from Franklin Pierce High School. Kingston’s Clark and Sax have a first round match with the doubles team from White River.
In the singles tournament, Scott Lyons of North Kitsap holds the No. 1 seed after defeating Kenny Soule of Port Angeles, 6-0, 6-1, in the league championship. He has a first round bye and will face the winner of the first match between Trey Crossen of Fife and Kyle Hebbler of Lindbergh
Ian Schmid will represent Kingston in the singles tournament, squaring off with TJ Singh of Foster. The winner goes on to face the SPSL champion, Abe Rios of Foster.
The tournament begins on Oct. 27 at 8 a.m.
— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com.