Foothills is No. 1 even without No. 1
By Tyler Hansen
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The Catalina Foothills boys tennis players strolled into Tucson Racquet Club on Tuesday morning with a hop in their steps and smiles plastered on their faces.
Foothills was without its best player, senior Tom Wolff, for the 4A-I state championship match against a top-of-the-line opponent.
But when you are as good as Foothills, smiling comes a little easier.
The Falcons overcame injury — yet again — and Scottsdale Chaparral's talented lineup to win 5-1 and capture their fourth consecutive state championship.
"This is pretty sweet. We had most of our team here, but someone is always injured," senior Sam Sufi said. "To close out high school like this, that makes it the best one."
Wolff, who finished second to Chaparral's Drake Kakar in last week's individual state play, was out sick for the second straight day. That put pressure on the rest of the Foothills lineup.
Everyone responded.
"We're deep," Falcons coach Robb Salant said. "My second (group of) six players are the third-best team in the state."
As for winning quickly without Wolff?
"That's coaching, baby," Salant said with a laugh. "Let's see how Phil Jackson would do without Kobe."
The Firebirds won one of three doubles matches to start, which they felt gave them an advantage entering the six singles matches.
"I totally thought we had it. That's what our goal was, to get one during doubles," Kakar said. "We were confident that we could win four in singles."
Instead, the Firebirds did not win any. Sufi, Dan Hyman and Wade Heerboth all won in straight sets to end the match. Tyler Campbell, at No. 1 in place of Wolff, even had a lead on the champion Kakar in a first-set tiebreaker.
"We just knew we had it," Hyman said. "Everything went well, and they couldn't respond."
A second local team, Flowing Wells' girls, fell painfully shy of their first title since 1989. The Caballeros lost 5-4 in a duel settled in the last match against a backloaded Chaparral team.
Flowing Wells, relying on its customarily dominant top three players, had a 2-1 advantage entering singles play. Twins Tristany and Kirsten Leikem easily won in the top two singles matches, and Chaparral won Nos. 4-6.
That put everyone's focus on the lone remaining match between Flowing Wells' Kari Emery and the Firebirds' Molly Ruby. They split the first two sets before Ruby found another gear and won 6-1, 2-6, 6-1.
"I think it just depended on who was going to come on the fastest, and, unfortunately, it was her," said Emery, a freshman. "I felt pressure being the last match out there and having it come down to me.
"There wasn't much I could do."
The match marked the end of the illustrious careers of the Leikem twins, who Saturday became the first doubles tandem to win four state titles.
They finished their Flowing Wells careers with a 252-14 record in all singles and doubles matches and led the Caballeros to two state runner-up finishes and another semifinal appearance.
"We knew if we came out and tried our best we would get a good result, and we did," Kirsten said. "5-4 is nothing to be ashamed of. We all had a great year."
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