King Spencer

MISSOULA - You would be hardpressed to find two tennis players

that respect one another more than Valley Christian's Josiah

Peterson and Mission's Spencer Ahlborn. The two faced off for the

singles' state championship last Saturday in Missoula, in a match

destined to become a classic.

MISSOULA - You would be hardpressed to find two tennis players that respect one another more than Valley Christian's Josiah Peterson and Mission's Spencer Ahlborn. The two faced off for the singles' state championship last Saturday in Missoula, in a match destined to become a classic.

"When they split sets and were going to have a third set to decide the winner, they walked up to the net and hugged each other," Mission head tennis coach Kimimi Ashley said. "It was such a great sight to see in regards to sportsmanship between two players."

Ahlborn, now the most successful player in Mission High School history and certainly a candidate for the rest of the state, won his second straight singles title by outlasting Peterson 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

"I kind of thought the match would be unpredictable," Ahlborn said. "Everytime I played him, he increased his skill. The match was fun because it felt like we were playing our best tennis."

Ahlborn capped off an undefeated season, and while he was working his way through the brackets of the state tournament, Peterson also worked his way towards the final

match.

"We were both very pleased [When they found out they'd be playing one another] because Josiah is such a great player and Spencer respects him for that,"Ashley said. "He was just happy that someone he respected and appreciated had made it to the finals with him. He also knew that Josiah wanted it as bad as he did so it was definitely going to be something special."

The atmosphere outside of the court was equally as impressive as the two players on it, as Mission tennis players came to support their teammate and wore crowns on their heads to honor the player, nicknamed "King Spencer."

"Our crowd is awesome," Ashley said. "The tennis players that came to support him are the greatest bunch of kids."

They made a human tunnel at the court gates for when Peterson and Ahlborn came out and also threw confetti, Ashley said.

"It just shows what respect and admiration they have for Spencer and how much work he did this year in obtaining his goal," she added. "The atmosphere was an honorable one in that I think everybody knew that the two players out there had no animosity between themselves."

Ahlborn said that the crowd was really supportive of both players and said that the thing that allowed him to pick up his second state title was his accuracy of placing the ball at the end.

"So far, winning the state title feels exactly the same as last year," Ahlborn said and added that lots of people have come up to him and congratulated him for winning.

But last year, Ahlborn had lost four matches in play. This season, he became the only Mission player ever to go undefeated in the regular season.

"I'm really proud of that, maybe more than the state title," he said. "I didn't try to look ahead, I just took every match that came to me."

Ashley added that her husband helped out a lot with the team this year.

"I would like to say thank you to my husband who supported my efforts and all the hours that a coach has to put on the tennis courts everyday," she said. "It's not easy being the support system and I appreciate the patience that he had in that. He also took care of our son at home while I was gone a lot with the team. He was Spencers' off-court coach and put a lot of work into Spencer. It was good for both of them because they respected each other in that way. He was why Spencer is such a respectful tennis player."

Ahlborn plans to attend the University of Montana and hopes to play tennis. If that happens, considering everything that the Mission student has accomplished, the rest of the Big Sky Conference is going to have their hands full.

BOYS

Kyle Shock downed Jeffrey Rebo of Troy in the first round, 7-5, 6-1 before falling to eventual second-place finisher Josiah Petersen (6-3, 6-1). He did down Jeremy Moss from Cut Bank in the consolation bracket.

"Kyle had his best run of playing that he had all year," Ashley said. "He is only a sophomore and was playing players with more experience. He will be putting a lot of time on the courts this summer and should be a strong asset to our team in the next couple of years."

His brother, Bryan, battled Creede Garcia in the first round before falling 7-6 (4), 6-1. In the consolation bracket, he downed Maelan Arciello from Loyola and Cody Orr from Troy.

"He was playing good tennis and just came short by one round of being able to place at state in singles," Ashley said. "This is the first year he had gotten the chance to play singles at state and he did us proud."

Doubles players Trail Bundy and Karl Daniels placed sixth after winning their first round matchup 6-4, 7-6. Then they battled a Cut Bank team that made it to the finals, and fell after a battle, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. They won their first matchup in the consolation bracket and eventually placed sixth in the tournament.

"Trail and Karl had a good tournament overall," Ashley said. "It was a bit bittersweet in placing sixth because they were so close to defeating the No. 1 Cutbank team who made it to the finals. They had split sets with them and then were neck and neck in the third set right up until the last two games. Karl and Trail were a fun couple of boys to be able to coach."

Mauro Grosso fell to Cody Orr from Troy in the first round, 6-4, 6-2 but in the consolation bracket downed Loyola's Teddy Muth, 6-2, 6-1.

"Mauro had a hard luck run at state because I think he could have done a lot better if he'd been rested," Ashley said. "He had that potential despite this being only his first year of tennis. He had a great season and played well at the two warm-up tournaments we attended."

Kats Yelsa and Harry Suta fell in the first round, 6-2, 6-0.

"Kats and Harry did good despite only getting to practice together once during the week of state play due to personal reasons," Ashley said. "I am hoping that they both plan on playing tennis again next year because they both also have great potential as singles players."

GIRLS

Mission tennis players Sarah Bowers and Jane Makepeace both picked up first round wins at the state tournament in Missoula and then made some noise in the consolation bracket as well.

Makepeace, who finished second at the Western B-C Divisionals last week, defeated Carry Vandall from Wolf Point, 6-0, 6-1 in her first game of the weekend.

After losing in the second round, Makepeace rattled off three straight consolation wins before falling just short of placing in the state tournament.

Bowers defeated Whitehall's Lizzie Larsen 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 before falling in the second round also. In the consolation bracket she defeated Wylie Richardson 6-3, 6-3, and then lost in the next round.