Davis leads Wolves to third-place finish

Stephanie Davison is working her way back into tennis form — and that’s bad news for the rest of the Narrows league.

Davison, a sophomore at South Kitsap, back from a short layoff to have her wisdom teeth removed, returned in fine fashion at Saturday’s Narrows League Tennis Invitational, taking the No. 1 singles title and helping the Wolves to a third-place finish.

“I wasn’t playing very good, but I won,” Davison said. “I’ve been taking a break from tennis, so I’m trying to get back in. I’m trying to work my way back up.”

She did just that, downing Gig Harbor’s Alex Blakely 6-1, 6-0 to take the title.

“She’s not on top of her game that we’re used too,” South coach Todd Olson said. “But she’s playing into it quite well.”

Enumclaw won the team title with 35 points while Gig Harbor was second at 32 and South third with 31.

“It was really close,” Olson said. “It came down to the wire. We did really well.”

South’s Charlotte Duren won the No. 2 singles title by beating Leiana Howard of Bremerton 6-0, 6-0.

“She’s playing good right now,” Olson said of Duren. “She’s beat a lot of schools’ No. 1 players.

“I think our singles are really strong,” Davison said. “Our doubles could definitely play at a higher level, but I’m not worried about it. I think we’ll be fine.”

South had no doubles teams in any of the day’s finals, but Olson said he was happy with the direction his team is headed.

“Singles, we’ve strong in that all year, came out and dominated,” Olsen said. “Our doubles also did fairly well. We did some new matchups today so players are still trying to get used to each other.

“They did well,” Olsen said. “There’s still some communication issues since they have new partners.”

Olson has been tinkering with his doubles lineups lately, trying to get the matchups as the state playoffs grow nearer.

“We’re pretty happy with the performance,” Olson said. “Doubles is starting to come along. We’ve only lost one divisional match so we’re sitting pretty good.

“My doubles teams are really young so I’m happy with the progress they’ve made throughout the year,” Olson said. “They’re getting all the patterns down and getting everything down. They’re playing really well. We can definitely be stronger and we will.”

South faced North Kitsap late Monday and will compete in the West Central District tournament in late May.

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