St. Mary’s earns four spots in the 4A/3A/2A/1A state semifinals; South Medford’s Uschold upset in quarterfinals

Ashland senior Veronica Miller cruised into the Class 5A girls tennis state semifinals in singles, and St. Mary’s scored four spots in the semifinals at the 4A/3A/2A/1A state championships to spark an action-packed Friday.

The No. 3-seeded Miller advanced to the semifinal round for a fourth straight year, and will be seeking to play in the championship final for the first time when she matches up Saturday with top-seeded Kennedy Harris of La Salle Prep.

Miller opened with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Crescent Valley’s Alison Li, then posted a 6-2, 6-2 win over Corinna Lobscheid of Corvallis in the quarterfinals at West Hills Racquet and Fitness Club.

Third-seeded Reid Ravassipour of St. Mary’s also reached the semifinals in boys singles, with the senior posting a 6-2, 6-1 win over Marist’s Griffin Scoble and a 6-0, 6-1 decision over Catlin Gabel’s Brandon Perlewitz.

Ravassipour will face top-seeded Marist junior E.J. Roedl in the semifinals at the OSU Tennis Complex in Corvallis.

Unseeded St. Mary’s sophomore Carys Chamberland reached the girls semifinals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Callie Winebarger of Crook County and a 7-6 (5), 6-4 upset of third-seeded Ella Li of Oregon Episcopal.

Chamberland advanced to face No. 2 seed Whitney Hedden of Marist in the semis.

St. Mary’s also qualified two doubles teams for the semifinals after the second-seeded boys tandem of Ben Smith and Henry Smith and the third-seeded duo of Sydney Holdermann and Alison Olson posted a perfect Friday.

Each doubles team won both their matches in straight sets.

In the Class 6A state championships, South Medford sophomore Alexis Uschold was upset by sixth-seeded West Linn sophomore Sonya Drayton in the quarterfinals, 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3. The two final sets were the first such losses for Uschold all season.

Top-seeded tournament favorite Nikhitha Suresh of Westview was also upset in Friday’s semifinals, creating a Saturday final between the Nos. 4 and 5 seeds in Sofia Sorokina of Nelson and West Linn’s Leah Lup, respectively, at the Tualatin Hills Tennis Center.

South Medford’s fifth-seeded doubles pairing of Alexander Gurov and Antonio Perez-Cansino also suffered a quarterfinals loss, falling 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) to Lake Oswego’s Robert Evenson and Ryan Alavi, the No. 3 seed.

Ashland freshman Max Herron won his opening 5A boys singles match before being eliminated in the second round by No. 1 seed Kaiden Harris of La Salle Prep. The Grizzlies’ Elyn Barker dropped both of his singles matches Friday.

Sophomore Claudia Stadtmueller of Ashland scored a 6-4, 6-0 win over Trina Dinh of Parkrose in her first girls singles match, but was eliminated in the quarterfinals by Crescent Valley’s Keira Lin in a wild 6-1, 6-7 (13-15), 6-0 (4) match.

Ashland’s fourth-seeded doubles team of Adam Shelton and Frederick Kooijman were eliminated in the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-0 decision against La Salle Prep’s Jeffrey Boknecht and Lucas Wong.

Ashland’s Weston Reynolds and Milo Leiserson dropped both of their boys doubles matches Friday, and girls duo Alice Pearson-Albano and Thea Vogel had a similar circumstance.

Cyrus Oliva of St. Mary’s won 6-0, 7-5 over Pendleton’s Matthew Stansbury before being eliminated in straight sets by No. 4 seed Ryan Roedl of Marist in 4A/3A/2A/1A boys singles.

St. Mary’s sophomore Piper Ravassipour won her first match of the day before being eliminated by top-seeded North Bend junior Raegan Farm in the 4A/3A/2A/1A girls singles quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-0.

St. Mary’s tandem Titus Stark-Seymour and Sriram Dinesh bowed out of the boys doubles tournament in the quarterfinals due to an injury default while playing third-seeded Will Barsotti and Burkeley Knight-Sheen of Marist. The teams split the first two sets and the Marist duo was up 3-0 in the third set before the match was halted.

Adalie Ford remained in contention for the Crusaders in the consolation bracket in girls singles, with Landus Ho and Lucas Peterson in the same position in boys doubles.

Reach sports editor Kris Henry at kris.henry@rv-times.com or 458-488-2035