The Coupeville High School tennis team began the season in thrilling fashion, coming from behind to beat host Sequim 4-3 Monday, Sept. 13.
With the team score knotted at 3, the outcome came down to the final players to finish, the fourth doubles teams.
Coupeville’s Jared Helmstadter and Grey Rische rebounded for a 4-6, 6-4, 10-7 win.
The pair dropped the first set and trailed 3-1 in the second before rallying for the win.
“I’ve never seen one of our teams pull off such a drastic comeback,” coach Ken Stange said. “They were so patient and relaxed about it, too. What made it more shocking is that it was our first match. It was Sequim’s third match of the year, so I expected that we’d be a little nervous.”
As a team, Coupeville trailed 3-1 at one point.
First, the Wolves’ Joey Lippo and William Nelson captured second doubles 6-3, 6-0.
Then Sequim (1-2) took first singles (over Sebastian Davis 6-0, 6-1), first doubles (over John McClarin and Joseph Wedekind 6-4, 6-2) and third singles (over Garrett Compton 7-5, 6-2).
Coupeville needed to win the remaining three matches to claim victory, and they dropped the first set in all of them.
Connor McCormick was the first to comeback, grabbing second singles 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Jimmy Myers and Lilan Sekigawa followed with a 6-7(5-7), 6-4, 10-8 win in third doubles, setting up the winner-take-all fourth doubles clash.
McCormick played doubles his first three years in the Coupeville program, and it took him awhile to get into a singles mode, Stange said.
“Once the third set began, Connor didn’t look like a doubles player playing singles in the team’s first match of the season. The rust was gone.”
Stange said the Myers/Sekigawa duo “works well together.”
“Lilan is consistent and Jimmy is an excellent retriever,” Stange said. “I am impressed by their ability to communicate during the match.”
Coupeville also picked up two JV wins: Cole Payne/Nick Etzell won 8-6, and Jakobi Baumann/Santiago Ortiz won 6-3.
The Wolves go to Klahowya (0-1) at 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, to begin league play.
