Galena short at state tennis tournament

Galena High School's team championship hopes fell short in both the boys and girls divisions at the NIAA/U.S. Bank State Tennis Tournament on Friday in Las Vegas.

Galena's boys, the defending state champions, lost to Bonanza 14-1/2-8 in the team finals played at UNLV's Fertitta Tennis Complex. In the girls final, Bishop Gorman captured its 10th team state title in 10 years with a 17-1/2-5 triumph against Galena.

Galena's Andrew Eklove won all three of his singles matches, but it wasn't enough to offset the balanced Bonanza Bengals.

Bonanza swept all three of the doubles matches in the first round to take an early 5-1/2-2 lead and the Bengals never looked back.

One highlight for Galena came later in the day during the tournament's individual competition when Eklov and Roach advanced to the doubles semifinals. Eklov and Roach got past their opening round match with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Bonanza's Dane Nielson and Alec Runyon.

The Galena team will play Green Valley's Jason Harper and Ryan Lorenz, the No. 1 Sunrise Region seed, in the semifinals today at 8 a.m. at UNLV.

On the girls side, Galena's Francie Weber won both of her singles matches against Gorman. Weber, the Northern 4A Region champion, didn't fare as well in the individual bracket when she was knocked off by Rebecca Ahmed of The Meadows 6-1, 6-0.