Wave tennis stumbles at state

The conditions were favorable, but the results were the same.

Fallon’s hopes of netting a win at the Division I-A state tennis tournament in Truckee last week fell short.

The Greenwave’s four individual qualifiers, plus the Lady Wave in the team tournament, were all bounced in the first round. The girls team lost 15-3 to Faith Lutheran on Thursday.

Martin Beyer and Tyler Wood fell 6-0, 6-2, to Clark’s Chaitanya Ingle and Marcus Pasimio.

Ingle and Pasimio split the Division I-A title with Incline’s Miles Prim and Cole Steinberg after snow halted the match. Ingle and Pasimio won the first set, 7-5, while Prim and Steinberg were leading 2-0 in the second set.

The other finals, which featured an all-southern final, were completed Monday in Las Vegas.

Ingle, meanwhile, tallied his third straight win over Beyer and Wood in the state tournament, although his partner the previous two tournaments was Deric Pang.

“They played really good,” Fallon boys coach John Moore said. “It took them (Wood and Beyer) a set to get going. They played pretty good, but it wasn’t meant to be. Those kids from Vegas are pretty solid.”

For the Lady Wave, Debra Beyer and Kali Strong lost 6-1, 6-0, to Talia Graf and Kristina Berg of Faith Lutheran, while Melanie Nuckolls and Izzy Martinez fell 6-1, 6-2, to Olivia Waysack and Audrey Grigore of The Meadows.

Fallon’s lone singles player, Adam Wadsworth, was blanked 6-0, 6-0, by Clark’s Michael Pasimio.

“They played really well … and obviously they were outplayed,” Fallon girls coach Julie Moore. “They went out to meet the challenge head on.”

Beyer and Strong entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed from the North, but struggled to win points as Graf and Berg finished fourth.

“Those girls (Graf and Berg) hit hard,” Moore said.

Nuckolls and Martinez, meanwhile, also stumbled in the first set due to nerves, Moore said, but rallied and improved in the second set. Maysack and Grigore placed second after losing in Monday’s final in three sets.

“They kind of calmed down, but by that time it was already too late,” Moore added. “They fought hard and didn’t let them (Waysack and Grigore) walk all over them.”

As for the Lady Wave in the team tournament, Fallon netted three wins, one each by Lana Quint in singles and Nuckolls and Martinez and Kayla Bekaires and Haley Lindsay won in doubles.

“The kids felt it was anti-climatic,” Moore said of the team tournament. “They want to continue to make it to state as a team and win more matches.”