Boys Tennis -- Rainey Helps Mercer Island Make History

MERCER ISLAND - Sophomore Nick Rainey is working with a piece of history. One of his personal coaches, Mike Shore, is a living bridge to Mercer Island High School's past tennis glories. But yesterday, Rainey and his Islander teammates forged their own piece of history.

At the finals of the Sea-King AAA District tournament, the Islanders ran away with the team title with 38 points while Inglemoor and Sammamish tied for second with seven.

The Islanders claimed the top two spots in singles and doubles. No team had accomplished that feat since Shore's Mercer Island team of 1973-74. Back then, there wasn't a district tournament - just the KingCo finals - and Shore was the league's singles champion before

finishing third at the state tournament.

Shore is currently working with Rainey, who won the district singles title yesterday, defeating senior teammate Dan Corey 6-2, 6-3.

Last year Corey and Rainey teamed up to win the state doubles title, but Rainey is now 2-0 against his teammate after beating him in the finals of the KingCo Tournament last fall.

The doubles competition also mirrored the results of last fall's KingCo finals as Islander junior Dalibor Snyder and senior Ricky Doyle teamed up to beat seniors Jamee Wong and Seth Greenberg 6-2, 6-3.

That doubles match brought out the best from both squads.

"They played better than they played through the whole tournament," said Mercer Island Coach Joyce Hedlund.

"All of a sudden, it meant more to the boys to be first."

The stakes won't decrease between now and next weekend's state tournament in Yakima.

In 1974, a first-place finish in the KingCo doubles preceded a successful bid by Dave Larson and Dave Rumpf for the state title.