Panthers Gain Metro Edge -- Seattle Prep Tennis Team Edges Lakeside

Instead of pacing courtside, Seattle Prep tennis Coach Mark Frisby took a long walk toward the woods. Watching his players makes them nervous.

While Frisby wasn't looking, his players won the match. It only took a few minutes. The Panthers won three consecutive matches, as they beat the Lakeside Lions 6-5 yesterday in a Metro League tennis match at Lower Woodland Park.

The victory leaves the Panthers (4-0) in a favorable position to win the Metro League championship. They have beaten Lakeside (3-1) and Roosevelt (3-1), the league's other two front-runners. Prep won the Metro AA title last year, by virtue of a 6-5 victory over Lakeside.

Both teams went to the 1991 state tournament. Prep won the boys state title, Lakeside the girls championship, leaving a question as to which team really was the best in the state.

"It was really hard to say," Frisby said. "We dominated the boys. They dominated the girls matches. I think the teams are more evenly matched this season, all the way through."

When Charlie Hall hit the overhead slam that gave the Panthers the narrow victory, Frisby, hidden behind a thicket of spectators, didn't even realize it was match point.

Hall and doubles partner Michelle Agnuling beat Lakeside's mixed doubles team of Scott Hannah and Jenny Stam 6-3, 6-7, 6-1 to clinch the victory, one conceived in ignorance.

"You mean if we lost, the whole team would have lost the match?" Agnuling asked Hall after the match.

Hall said he thought his team already had lost the match, that his victory would be only a symbolic one. Agnuling also thought her match would be of no consequence.

"I just wanted to win, since we lost against Roosevelt," Hall said. "I'm glad we didn't know. I would have been real nervous."

Prep also beat Roosevelt 6-5. In that match, which lasted five hours, Prep's No. 2 boys doubles team of Scott Jaeger and Chris Lui were the heroes, winning a three-setter to clinch the victory. Yesterday Lui and Jaeger were off the hook, winning their match in two sets a few minutes before Hall and Agnuling won.

Lui and Jaeger broke serve once in the second set, winning the final three games to take a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Lakeside's No. 2 boys doubles team of Phil Conway and Jeff Ju. Less than a minute earlier, Prep's No. 1 boys doubles team of Dan McShane and Matt Brainard defeated Lakeside's Jeremy Kiefer and Bill Lowry 7-6, 7-5. The two boys doubles victories tied the team score 5-5.

Down a break point, Brainard served two consecutive service winners to take a 6-5 lead in the second set. (During the regular season, teams don't play advantage points.) In the 12th and deciding game, Kiefer double-faulted twice, giving Brainard and McShane double match point. Kiefer saved the first match point, but hit a volley long to end the match.

The team score was tied 3-3 after the singles matches. As expected, Prep's top singles players, Marco Magnano and Charlotte Loveland, won in straight sets. Magnano, the defending state singles champion, beat Jamie Moss 6-3, 6-0; Loveland, the state runner-up last year, beat Hillary Nagy 6-2, 6-2.

But Prep no longer has a guaranteed sweep in the boys draw, as it did last year when it had Brooks McMahon and Chad Raymond, who teamed to win the 1991 state doubles title. McMahon graduated and Raymond opted not to play high-school tennis so he could play more national tournaments.

Lakeside took advantage of Prep's new weakness, winning the Nos. 2 and 3 boys singles matches. Jon Kirk beat Eric Hansen 6-2, 6-0; and Jason Barnes beat Pat Barthe 6-2, 6-0. The Lions no longer live by their girls alone.

"The guys have really come up," said Lakeside's Jill Kirkpatrick.

Lakeside's No. 2 girl, Betsy Schanno, beat Maggie McDonald 6-3, 6-3 (Schanno and Nagy won the state girls doubles championship last year); Prep's No. 3 girl, Maggie Campbell, beat Heidi Lee 6-4, 6-2.

Lakeside's forte is still girls doubles. The Lions won both matches. The new sister team of Jill and Julie Kirkpatrick won the No. 1 match, beating Elizabeth Frisby and Kelsey Zwiebel 6-2, 7-5. Lakeside's No. 2 girls doubles team of Randi Fogg and Hillary Stamm breezed past Prep's Jennifer Yogi and Chris Boyle 6-0, 6-2 to give the Lions a 5-3 lead in the team score.

The Kirkpatricks are partners for the first time. They were supposed to team up last season, but Jill was out with a knee injury. Julie, now a sophomore, took third at state last year in girls doubles with Stamm.

"I love it," said Jill of playing with her sister. "We're used to working with each other from basketball. And we play (tennis) all the time on weekends."

The Lions still have the deepest girls team in the league, despite losing its top player, Amber Caisse, who transferred to Meadowdale. Caisse won a state title as a freshman and lost in the semifinals last year as a sophomore. Lakeside Coach Frank Hartung said there is a "good chance" Caisse will return to Lakeside as a senior.

"We miss Amber, but the team will make up for it," Hartung said.

Said Jill Kirkpatrick: "Hillary has been playing very well. The girls are so deep, one player isn't going to hurt us too much."