Punctuality Not Enough For Proctor -- UW Tennis Player Falls In Pac-10 Tournament

Lisa Proctor was at the Nordstrom Tennis Center at 7 a.m. yesterday, an hour before her first-round match in the Pac-10 Indoor Tournament.

The timing was no accident.

"I learned the hard way," she said.

Two years ago, Proctor was playing for Roosevelt High School and lost her chance for the state prep singles title because of tardiness. She was disqualified from the Metro League Tournament for reporting a few minutes late for a second-round match on a rainy afternoon. Once out of the Metro tournament, she couldn't advance to state.

Yesterday, Proctor, a sophomore and the Huskies' No. 1 player, was beaten by Jennifer Poulos of California 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a three-hour match.

The loss, which won't affect Proctor's status as the best collegiate player in the Northwest, probably will be soon forgotten by everyone except Proctor and Husky Coach Lisa Moldrem.

The disqualification from the high-school match still hasn't been forgotten. Proctor said everyone seems to remember it.

"Trust me, they do," she said. "It's never-ending. It will haunt me for the rest of my life. I haven't been late ever since."

Proctor could have run from the high-school flap and picked a far-off university, but she instead chose the UW, which is only five minutes from her home in Madison Park. One of the magnets was the Nordstrom Tennis Center, which has kept Proctor and some other top Northwest players from going south since it was built in 1989.

Proctor, 5 feet 4, 115 pounds, is hardly a one-dimmensional athlete. She was a three-sport star at Roosevelt, where she was all-Metro in soccer and swimming. She plays on a coed UW intramural soccer team in the spring and is on a women's soccer team in the summer.

The other Husky in the tournament's first flight, Paige Stringer, a sophomore from Moraga, Calif., also lost yesterday. She fell to Joellie Schad of Arizona State 6-4, 6-1.

Tournament favorites advanced easily. Top-seeded Alix Creek of Arizona beat Sara Willens of Oregon 6-2, 6-2 and Pam Nelson of California, who played last summer in Europe, beat Paige Yaroshuk of UCLA 6-1, 6-1.

Schoolwork kept Stanford's top player, Laxmi Poruri, ranked No. 2 collegiately in the nation, from participating in the tournament, which runs through tomorrow.