ARLINGTON – Arlington seniors Nicholas Mendro and Connor Guthrie had to endure tough doubles matches at the 3A North Wesco tournament Oct. 18-19.

Arlington came in ranked second but they knew top-seeded Stanwood and even third-seeded Snohomish would pose a challenge.

Arlington coach Ben Mendro thought his son, Nicholas, and Connor would have a good shot against the doubles teams of Stanwood’s Nathaniel Haskin and Peyton Headrick, and Snohomish’s Steve Sanders and Zach Hatzenbeler.

Nicholas and Connor were primarily singles players this season, but were recently paired as a doubles team as the postseason drew near. They entered the tournament with a 2-2 record in doubles.

“It’s hard to come out of singles and play, even though Nick and I played together,” Connor said. “It’s different – you need to have a couple of matches to get back into the zone of playing doubles.”

To make matters worse, rain knocked them off course, their coach said.

They were paired late last season also and had some success then, placing third in league and advancing to the district tourney.

“We were looking at what we thought of as the best potential for them to advance on to the state tournament,” Mendro said. “Doubles has a little more of a wild card factor there.”

It all boiled down to chemistry and their complementary strengths.

“They’ve play together quite a bit — they’re friends,” Mendro said.

Nicholas is the quicker of the pair and attacked the net.

“He’s extremely athletic and really quick,” his dad said. “He has an ability to run down shots that people don’t think he’s going to get.”

“Nick’s my cheetah,” Connor added. “If I miss a ball, I don’t have to worry about it because Nick’s behind me.”

Connor’s strength is his serve and stroke play.

“He has one of the biggest serves in the league,” Mendro said. “If he’s on with his serve, they are tough to beat.”

“When I’m at the net, and he’s serving, I just know I have a ball to put away,” Nicholas added. “Because if that serve is going in it’s going to be an easy ball for me to hit up at the net.”

Things went well for Arlington’s duo initially. They defeated Marysville-Pilchuck 6-0 and 6-1 to get to the quarterfinals against Haskin and Headrick. They won the first match 6-3.

But then the rain came. The tournament was postponed, and they had to wait until the next day; that’s when things went awry.

“Unfortunately, when we came back yesterday and resumed the match, they went flat and lost the second and third sets,” Mendro said.The boys lost the final matches 6-2 and 6-2. They had one more shot to qualify for districts through the consolation rounds. They easily got through Everett 6-0 and 6-3 but had to face Sanders and Hatzenberger after that.

Nicholas and Connor started strong again; they broke to an early 5-3 lead, but eventually lost, 7-6, after a 7-4 tie-breaker. The second set went quickly.

“Unfortunately, they put themselves in a hole, 0-5, and weren’t able to climb out, eventually losing 6-2,” Mendro said.

The duo is aware that that was their last competitive high school tennis match.

“I think more important than winning is having fun and playing the game we love,” Connor said.

Both said they will play tennis all their lives. They also have academic pursuits.

Nicholas wants to study pre-med because “of its many options in the medical field.”

Connor wants to study math or statistics.

“I could probably do that in some major sporting thing,” he said. “Where I could be a general assistants manager because of the projections advancing the world of sports today.”