Thomas Jefferson girls tennis ties for first place at NPSL tournament

Seven athletes from Federal Way high schools advance to West Centeral Districts on May 16.

By For the Mirror • May 10, 2019 4:15 am
Thomas Jefferson girls tennis ties for first place at NPSL tournament

By Andrew Buchan

TJHS girls tennis head coach

Thomas Jefferson tied with Hazen for a first-place finish in the NPSL girls tennis tournament with 27 points.

Leading the way for the Raiders was Nancy Cabanas who defeated two state veterans en route to her singles title.

In the semi-finals, she defeated Hazen’s Sophia Kissin, second in state as a freshman and seventh in state last year, 6-3, 6-1. Then in the finals Cabanas defeated Kentwood’s Erika Ito 6-3, 3-1, injury retired.

Last year Ito defeated Cabanas twice on the way to her third-place finish at state. Prior to the final, Ito had not even dropped a game in the tournament.

In doubles TJ’s, Mia Rosa and Ally Peterson finished second to Auburn Riverside’s Isabel Kim and Camden Heilborn, losing 0-6, 7-5, 6-4 in the final.

Kara Nguyen from Todd Beamer finished seventh in singles, Jillian Chong from Federal Way finished ninth in singles, and Gia An Nguyen/Kaely Eves from Decatur finished seventh in doubles.

All will be representing their schools at the West Central District tournament beginning Thursday, May 16, at the Boeing Employees Tennis Club (6727 S. 199th Place in Kent).

April 30

The Thomas Jefferson girls tennis team defeated Enumclaw 4-1 on April 30, to win a share of the NPSL title.

With a final record of 13-1, TJ and Auburn Riverside are co-league champions. This is the second consecutive league title for TJ and the eight title in the past 10 years.

Nancy Cabanas finished the season 10-0 at No. 1 singles and 15-0 overall. Gjianni White was likewise undefeated, finishing 14-0 on the season.

Mia Rosa and Ally Peterson played their best tennis of the year against Enumclaw, cruising to a win at No. one doubles. TJ’s fourth point came from the doubles team of Grace Lim and Tiffany Tran.

The JV tennis team defeated Enumclaw 4-1 to finish the season 12-2. This was the best JV record TJ has had in a long time and 1st year coach Aaron Lee had a lot to do with it. Every match TJ got better and ultimately won their last 10 matches in a row. The future looks bright for TJ tennis.