Boys tennis: Little takes third at districts, advances to state

Somebody found a way to finally beat young Sequim tennis ace Garrett Little.

The Sequim High sophomore, who came into the West Central District tourney undefeated this season and this past spring as a freshman, went 3-1 and earned a third place finish, earning a spot at the state 2A tourney set for May 27-28 at the Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle.

Little opened the tourney with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Xavier Jones of Sammamish, then beat Jordan Allen of Foss in the quarterfinals, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. In the semis, Josh Chou of Sammamish — the class 2A state runner-up in 2019 — handed Little his first loss.

Little rebounded to beat Oscar Grados of Fife, 7-5 and 6-4, for third place.

In two prep seasons so far, Little is 32-1 in singles play — 19-1 this season and 13-0 as a ninth-grader — and 1-0 in doubles play.

Teammate Connor Bear went 1-2 at districts and saw his season end. Bear dropped a 6-1, 6-2 decision to Foss’ Allen, then rebounded with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Sammamish’s Jones. Port Angeles’ Reef Gelder finally eliminated Bear 6-0, 6-1 in the consolation bracket.

Bear wound up 13-7 in singles play this season.

Gelder went 3-2 at districts to qualify for state as a No. 6 seed.

League tourney

Little earned a second league championship in as many years, earning back-to-back come-from-behind wins for a top seed into districts in the two-day Olympic League tourney.

After a pair of relatively easy wins over North Kitsap’s Alex Kenney and Indigo Gallagher-Zapf, Little got a tough match from Bear but edged his SHS teammate, 4-6, 6-2 and 6-3.

In the league championship match, PA’s Gelder pushed Little — but the Sequim soph prevailed in their third close match of the season: 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

In the consolation bracket, Bear beat Port Angeles’ Eden Bailey 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the third/fourth-place match before falling to North Kitsap’s Jason Hart.

Sequim’s Koda Robinson, along with doubles teams Henry Hughes-Jack Van De Wege and Adrian Brown-William Hughes, each won at least one match in the league tournament.