Hazen Tennis Team Goes Head-to-Head with Tyee

The Hazen Highlanders tennis team had a strong showing against the Tyee Totems. Winners included Haley Strandberg; Lesley Wong and Kristal Kozai; Jennifer Diep and Anastasia Brower; and Kevin Do and Harriet Aquino.

In the second featured girls match, Diep and Brower won their match 6-2 in both sets. The duo had a good start, going up 3-0 in their first set. Diep closed out the match with her winning shot to Tyee’s left corner. The Totems managed to tie the second set match at 2-2 before Diep and Brower managed to win 4 straight games to complete the match.

 In a mixed doubles match, Do and Aquino won their match set 2-0, winning the last set 6-3. In the last set game, they scored 4 consecutive times to wrap up the win.

Like any other high school program, each coach is faced with the rebuilding process after graduating many senior players, as this is the case with Hazen Head Coach Gail Ellis. Ellis said the Highlanders had 5 varsity players return from last season.

“This year we have a lot of young players,” said Ellis. “It will be interesting to see how well they do during the year.”

Ellis expects sophomores Strandberg and Kozai to break out this season.

“They have a lot of skills,” said Ellis, “they just need to work on a little positioning.”

The Highlanders will face the Foster Bulldogs at Foster High School in Tukwila this Monday. Game time is scheduled for 3:15pm

The complete results are as follows:

Hazen 6, Tyee 0

Boys singles — Omar Mozo (Tyee) win vs Nick Kawamoto (Hazen), 6-0, 6-7(6-8) -game called due to rain.

Girls singles — Haley Strandberg (Hazen) win vs Roxanna Castro (Tyee), 6-0, 6-0.

Boys doubles —#1 Gary Kono-Kyle Chin (Hazen) win vs Kevin Nugnh-Vy Nguyen (Tyee), 6-0, 7-5
#2 Corbin Kozai-Erik Takami (Hazen) win vs Martin Obrero-Jon Smith (Tyee), 6-1, 6-0.

Girls doubles —#1 Lesley Wong-Kristal Kozai (Hazen) win vs Savannah Williams-Lourdes Gatula (Tyee), 6-1, 6-1
#2 Jennifer Diep-Anastasia Brower (Hazen) win vs Krishana Rizal-Thien Nguyen (Tyee), 6-2, 6-2.

Mixed doubles — Kevin Do-Harriet Aquino (Hazen) win vs Yasi Zhong-Kyle Kennedy (Tyee), 6-2, 6-3.