PHS doubles team bows in 1A-3A quarterfinal round

ALBUQUERQUE — Portales High's third and final entry in Class 1A-3A state doubles competition was ousted on Thursday morning.

Juniors Emily Walker and Jessie Privett took a one-set lead by winning a tiebreaker, but St. Michael's Jessie Kotsch and Catie Ish rallied back for a 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 6-3 victory at the Jerry Cline tennis complex.

"Those girls are pretty good," PHS coach Brian Kirchner said of Kotsch and Ish. "We kind of played down to their level. We didn't do a good job of getting to the net.

"We did a good job of serving and we hit some good ground strokes, but in the end they (Kotsch and Ish) controlled the net."

Kotsch and Ish went on to reach the doubles finals, where they lost to Louisa Mackenzie and Clare Donahue of Bosque 6-2, 6-0.

PHS' other entries, Samantha Lopez and Belle Youngerwolf for the girls and Mychael Sturm and Austin Lucero for the boys, were ousted in first-round play on Wednesday.

Today, the Lady Rams take a No. 8 seed into t he team competition, and face top-seeded Bosque in a 9 a.m. quarterfinal match at Albuquerque Academy.

On Saturday, semifinal matches are on tap at 8 a.m., with the championship match slated for 1 p.m.