Morgan Galusha and Bridgette Burkholder won three of their four doubles tennis matches in the 3A district one playoffs. Due to some strange rules regarding state eligibility the pair wont be attending the state finals in Pasco. The May 19 playoff took place at Mount Vernon High School.
Morning rain delayed the start of the second day of districts, but after the brief distraction the water was skimmed off the courts and play began. The Arlington duo of Galusha and Burkholder needed to beat Shorecrests Kelsey Olsen and Lauren Monson in the days first game.
Arlington got out to a cold start, dropping the first game of the match after having a number of opportunities to win it. Morgan Galusha hit a cross-court winner on deuce point to give herself a chance to serve out the win, but Shorecrest battled back and eventually wound up slamming home the deciding point at the net.
In Game 2, Galusha got even as she hit two volley winners and Arlington broke Shorecrests serve to level the match 1-1. That set things up for Bridgette Burkholder to put the Eagles back in control with her rocket serve. She ratcheted up two aces and Galusha put away the game winner to put Arlington back on top.
The two teams continued to go back and forth, Shorecrest taking a 3-2 lead before Arlington won two straight to lead 4-3. The eighth game proved to be challenging for Arlington as the wind picked up and caused Galusha to miss some forehands long. The stiff breeze blew the tennis ball in all directions, particularly on deep shots.
However Galusha stormed back in the next game, serving strongly into the wind and led Arlington out to a pivotal 5-4 advantage in the first set. Shorecrest wilted under the pressure and misfired on a number of volley attempts in the next game to hand Arlington the first set 6-4.
Burkholder kept the momentum in Arlingtons favor to open the second set as she again served the Eagles to a game one win. It was a crucial victory as it continued to fluster the Shorecrest duo and made them question their own tennis ability. In game two of the second set, Galusha pounded down four straight volleys and Arlington broke Lauren Monsons serve to give themselves a 2-0 edge.
Shorecrest had reached a pivotal point in the match. They could have folded and quit early but they rallied fiercely and won the next four games to take a 4-2 edge in the second set. That was when Burkholder took things into her own hands. In game seven, she slammed a winner for 15-0, then later lobbed a touch-shot over both Shorecrest players and into the back left corner of the court for the game winner.
Arlington won the next two games of the set to move back in front 5-4 before Shorecrest came up with a big service game from Monson to level the score again.
At 5-5 both teams frayed nerves began to show. In the eleventh game, a 30-30 score was broken on a controversial line call that gave Arlington a 40-30 edge. They went on to win the game on the next point and put themselves in excellent position to close out the match. And that was exactly what they did in the twelfth and final game, ending Shorecrests season 6-4, 7-5.
Afterward Galusha was not overly satisfied with the teams performance.
There were moments of goodness, but for the most part we just did okay.
In the second game of the afternoon, Arlington downed Meadowdale to bring their district playoffs record to 3-1. At most levels that would be good enough to advance to the state finals but Arlington lost out on a tie-breaker to Squalicum who also finished 3-1 and managed to beat Arlington 6-4, 7-6 the first day of districts.
Fortunately for the Eagles top duo, both of them will return as seniors next year and be listed as early favorites to advance to the State tournament, if they remain a doubles partnership.