East Jefferson Rivals boy’s tennis top two players are turning things around.

“After a slow start, our two leading players, Reid Martin and Stuart Dow have had stellar performances,” said Coach Keith Johnson.

No. 1 singles Reid Martin has managed to win three of his last five matches and came in close against one of his toughest opponents.

On the road at Eatonville on Sept. 22, Martin beat a double bagel out of Justin Hietpas for a 6-0, 6-0 victory. Then on
Sept. 27, he handled Klahowya’s Zack Schweitzer almost as easily at home scoring 6-0, 6-1.

Two days later was Annie Wright’s Stanley Hunt-Kepler while on the road, where Martin flipped his previous score to win 6-1, 6-0. Back home again, Martin put in an honest effort against Cascade Christian’s Nick Jung in a 3-6, 3-6 match Oct. 4. Another two short days later, Martin was up against Charles Wright’s state tournament veteran Parth Jain and scored a solid 4-6, 5-7.

No. 2 singles Stuart Dow has also been making his way into the win column.

“Stuart Dow had back to back clutch performances against Klahowya and Cascade Christian with ‘come from behind’ third set tiebreaker victories,” Johnson said.

In the Eatonville road match, Dow barely lost out in a tiebreaker for his first of the five recent matches, then came back hard at home against Klahowya’s Dylan Michael to score 1-6, 6-2, breaking the tie with a 10-6 score.

Feeling the home court advantage, Dow once more fought his way back from behind to crush Cascade Christian’s Imnay Ibriham at 4-6, 6-0, with a 10-4 tiebreak.

With the wind turning their way, the players look ready for the league tournament scheduled for Oct. 26-27 at Jupiter Tennis Center in Edgewood before the district tournament Nov. 3-4 at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.