SUNRISE TENNIS: Coronado wins boys, girls region titles

Coronado boys tennis coach Luther Bohanan predicated his winning strategy Friday on keeping Ryland McDermott away from Liberty No. 1 singles player Dylan Ihmels in the first round of their Sunrise Region title match.

Bohanan juggled his lineup to put McDermott, one of the team’s top two players, in the No. 3 singles spot. Liberty coach Kih Gourrier did the same thing with Ihmels, seemingly countering the Cougars’ plan.

It didn’t matter.

McDermott beat Ihmels, 6-2 in the opening round, giving Coronado a lead it never relinquished en route to a 10-8 win over the Patriots in the Sunrise final at Darling Tennis Center.

Coronado (14-0) won its 10th straight region title and will compete in the state tournament, which begins Oct. 23 in Reno.

“Kih and I know each other very well, and I wanted Ryland to get a match under his belt before he met Dylan,” Bohanan said. “I tried to calculate where Kih would put Dylan. I put Ryland at third singles, thinking he would put Dylan at second. When we looked at the lineup, they were playing each other.

“That was a big win.”

It helped the Cougars take a 4-2 lead after the first round.

“Getting that lead made it just a matter of winning the matches we were supposed to win,” Bohanan said. “We just tried to be the first team to 10. We got to 10, and that’s the bottom line.”

McDermott finished 3-0 in singles, and Sam Grant and Connor Vermeys each was 2-1 in singles for Coronado.

The Cougars lost the defending state champions in doubles when twins Jack and Jamie Vance opted not to play high school tennis this year, and lost last year’s state runnerup in singles when Cassell King graduated, but never missed a beat.

“I just take what I have, and I just happen to have three good singles players,” said Bohanan, whose team will try to win its third straight state title. “I have a couple of good doubles kids, and you just try to match them up with some kids who maybe aren’t as talented. Hopefully those kids who are more talented will will those other kids to play better.”

The doubles teams of Tristan Hoyle and Kevin Bloomquist, and Al Gourrier and Matt Drongensen each went 3-0 for the Patriots (12-2). Ihmels was 2-1 in singles.

GIRLS

Coronado’s girls lost twice to Green Valley during the regular season.

Revenge was sweet for the Cougars on Friday.

Sparked by a surprising 3-0 effort by Lauren Coons in singles, the Cougars were 10-8 winners over the Gators in the Sunrise Region final at Darling Tennis Center.

Coronado (11-3) won its fifth straight Sunrise title and will compete in the state meet, which begins Oct. 23 in Reno.

“We had nothing to lose,” Bohanan said. “We made a lot of unforced errors in those matches. We just had to cut down on our errors and put the ball in play. We needed to make them make errors, and that’s what we did.”

Coons lost twice to Green Valley’s Josie Legarza during the regular season, but collected a 6-3 win over Legarza in the third round of singles play to help the Cougars take an 8-7 lead.

“Lauren came up huge,” Bohanan said. “Her getting that singles win was just huge.”

Allie Doherty and Nikoleta Nikoloff won their third doubles set to increase the lead to 9-7, and Camille Solla and Samantha Ross, who dropped a tiebreaker in their second set, collected the clinching point with a 6-3 win over Green Valley’s Elle Johnsong and Olivia Nhaisi.

“We had to change the lineup because putting Nikoleta in singles wasn’t going to work this time,” Bohanan said. “Nikki and Allie really seemed to click. Sam and Camille played together well. They were relaxed and just took it one point at a time. It worked out.”

Coons and Samantha Smith each went 3-0 in singles for Coronado. Smith didn’t lose a game in her three sets.

The doubles teams of Olivia Song and Daria Shalina, and Racquel Holder and Madeline Smith both went 2-1 for the Gators (13-1).