Royal girls doubles earn third at state

May 30—ROYAL CITY — The Royal Knights girls tennis doubles team Madi Christensen and Campbelle Anderson won third at the 1A state tournament last Saturday in Yakima.

“I was super excited to play,” said Christensen. “It was our last run, and I think we did pretty well against the private schools we played.”

The duo had a bye in the first round of the tournament after finishing as one of the top two teams in the district. This placed them directly in the quarterfinals to face Naches Valley.

“I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but I went in with high hopes,” said Anderson. “I wanted to do something special and do better than last year.”

Rowe and Jewett from Naches Valley are a duo that Christensen and Anderson had faced four times this season, but they didn’t think it was guaranteed either way. The two Knights came out on top over their opponents 6-3, 6-2.

The Knights’ next match was against Overlake in the semifinals. Overlake got the upper hand to win 6-1, 6-1, and the Knights girls were sent into the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.

“They were a really good team,” said Christensen. “We didn’t do the best against them, but they played really well.”

In the consolation bracket they prepared to play another familiar opponent, a duo from Cashmere. Anderson said she was confident in their chances of winning this match but still wanted to be vigilant while playing against them.

At the beginning of both sets against Cashmere the girls fell behind and let the opponent win the first game.

“That was kind of like a jump start to the game because we would start off a little bit slow and then we’d start to focus up and actually play our game,” said Anderson.

The Knights would rally in both sets to come up with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Cashmere putting them into the final round against Stevenson.

“We just knew we had to take it pretty seriously,” said Christensen. “They could beat us we weren’t in the right mindset, so we knew going in we had to be really focused and intentional with every shot.”

Christensen and Anderson earned a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Stevenson to win the consolation bracket and earn third place in the 1A state girls doubles tennis tournament. This victory marks the two seniors’ final time playing for the Knights in a state tournament as they graduate from high school.

The girls are proud of the successes from their senior season as the two took first in subdistricts and districts to once again return to the state tournament to earn their third-place finish.

“I think we had a pretty good season, I think state kind of showed that,” said Christensen. “I am pretty proud of how we played this season.”

“I feel like after accomplishing so much last season, going into it I was really nervous that we weren’t going to live up to the same standard and do as well or better than we did the year before,” said Anderson. “Now that the season is over, I’m really proud of what we accomplished, and I think we did a lot.”

Christensen said the two of them started their tennis careers in eighth grade. The Knights tennis coach Rodrigo Fajardo, who was their PE teacher at the time, encouraged them to try the game.

“We weren’t too excited about it at first, but he wanted us to come out for a few practices, so we just tried it out,” said Anderson. “We were not huge fans of it our eighth-grade year, we only went to two or three practices, and we played only one match.”

Going into high school the girls’ parents said they had to choose a sport to play so they decided to choose tennis since they already had prior experience with it. After this the two began to really enjoy playing and continued through their high school careers.

“It was an awesome experience for sure, I would not change it for anything,” said Christensen.

“We made a lot of different friends, going into it we didn’t know anybody on the tennis team, and we met a ton of people. The tennis community is amazing,” said Anderson.

The two plan on attending college at BYU Provo in the Fall. Anderson will be going through their nursing program, and Christensen is focusing on a degree in interior design and landscape design.

While the girls were unable to sign up to play tennis at the collegiate level this year, they still have themselves open to the possibility of continuing to play tennis in whatever way possible.

“For now, I think I’m just going to try and find tournaments around and keep up my skills in playing tennis,” said Christensen.

Quarterfinals

ROYL: 2

NACH: 0

Semifinals

ROYL: 0

OVLK: 2

C. Semifinals

ROYL: 2

CASH: 0

C. Finals

ROYL: 2

STVN: 0