Boys' Tennis: Tahoe gets past Tigers

In perhaps one of the most anticipated matchups of the Sierra League tennis season, Douglas High's Keagan Chipp and South Tahoe's Jimmy Roberts lived up to the billing, provided some of the most spectator-friendly play recent memory Thursday afternoon.

Unfortunately, only a handful of spectators were actually there to see it.

Roberts prevailed 6-2 in a match that saw plenty of back-and-forth rally points, booming serves and heady play on both sides of the net.

Chipp struggled to find a rhythm while serving in the first game and Roberts took the second with three impressive aces.

Then Chipp started to settle in, blistering groundstrokes and painting the corners to take a quick game 3.

He used a unique dig shot the put the ball into hyper-spin to take the speed off of Roberts' sharp serves in game 4. He fended off two more Roberts' aces and beat him cross court to take the game and tie the set up at 2-2

The two players battled to duece as Chipp began attacking Roberts' backhand, but Roberts pulled away to win the next four games.

Roberts finished the set off with three impressive aces.

Chipp bounced back to take his two final sets of the regular season, running his season record to 24-2 but South Tahoe prevailed in the team effort 11-7.

In an effort to steal some extra sets away from the Vikings, Douglas coach Mike McLaughlin teamed his No. 2 and No. 3 singles players, Robert Shawhan and Andrew Soloman, to play the No. 1 doubles spot.

The ploy worked as the duo swept through their three sets.

Douglas' remaining points on the day came from a win from Marshall Jessup and Tim Doran and from Spike Neri and John McLaughlin.

Douglas enters next week's team regional playoffs as the No. 4 seed out of the Sierra League, meaning the Tigers will have to travel to defending regional champion Galena in the first round.

McLaughlin said he expects to team Chipp and Shawhan up in doubles play for the regional tournament.

"They have an excellent shot to qualify for state," McLaughlin said.

The duo put on a preview Tuesday of what to expect for regionals as they mowed down Reno's powerful doubles squads.