Royals tennis sends doubles team to districts under new coach

For the first time in 13 years, a girls tennis doubles team from Kent-Meridian High School is heading to the district tournament.

Karissa Vongkhamchanh and Gheremie Icban will represent the Royals at the Class 4A West Central District 3 tournament Friday and Saturday in Tumwater.

Vongkhamchanh and Icban, both juniors, became friends in middle school while enrolled in the Kent Technology Academy at Mill Creek and decided to turn out for tennis their freshman year.

“I know I didn’t want to do track,” Vongkhamchanh said. “In middle school, I did track. I wanted to do a spring sport because the weather is nice. I wanted to do something besides soccer, and then I thought why not give tennis a try. It looks fun. We (Vongkhamchanh and Icban) said we were going to do it together.”

Both girls have athletic backgrounds – Vongkhamchanh plays soccer and Icban is a volleyball player – which has helped them do well in tennis, coach Maryann Thorp said.

“I think there’s not that many girls on the team that have played other sports, “Thorp said. “But the two that have excelled, have gotten the furthest are the ones that have played another sport. They are used to competing… I think it really plays into that competitive aspect of the game.”

It wasn’t until this season that Vongkhamchanh and Icban played doubles together.

“We always did doubles but never really together,” Icban said. “We wanted to do it last year, but they always put us in singles.”

Even this year, the pair only played a few regular season matches together.

“They are two of my strongest players,” Thorp said. “Sometimes you don’t want to put your two best in doubles. You might want to have one play singles and one play doubles so you have a chance to win two points instead of just one. I knew they were going to play postseason together cause I like to let the girls have a chance to play what they want postseason.”

Icban and Vongkhamchanh said they were both surprised when they found out they had qualified for the district tournament. The duo placed eighth in the subdistrict tournament. The top 11 teams moved on to districts.

“At first I didn’t really know we qualified for districts,” Icban said. “I just knew that we won the last game (at subdistricts) and then it wasn’t until she (Thorp) was so excited and she was like jumping up and down and I was like oh I guess we are going to districts.”

Thorp said she wasn’t surprised by the pair’s success.

“We always preach 100 percent effort and attitude and that’s it,” Thorp said. “And so if you do those things, you have a shot. If you don’t control those things, like the attitude and the effort, then you might not have a shot… You just have to believe. That has been another big slogan for the year, is just believing in themselves, that they can do it. They have been proving it all year long in different ways. It has been fun to watch.”

This is Thorp’s first season coaching the Royals team, but she is no stranger to Kent-Meridian’s tennis program. She won the 1979 state singles tennis title as a student at Kent-Meridian in 1979.

Thorp previously coached at Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien, but was excited to make the move to Kent-Meridian.

“I knew coming in here that they had only won one match in 10 years,” she said. “It just sounded like a fun challenge. I just kind of came in with the goals to have fun, to get the girls to improve and to get respect (for the team from other tennis programs). Those were my three big goals for the team, and it (the season) definitely exceeded my expectations.”

The team won five matches this year, including three conference wins.

Vongkhamchanh and Icban attributed their success and the team’s improvement to Thorp’s coaching.

“It made us want to come to practice,” Vongkhamchanh said. “I was just talking to the girls (on the team) they were like, ‘I miss tennis season. It was so fun this year compared to the other years.’ That just makes people want to come back more. We saw girls playing (on their own) even when the season was over.”

The team had fun off the court as well, with team bonding activities including a water balloon fight, a scavenger hunt and a potluck, that showcased the team’s diversity. The 35 girls on the team speak 23 languages and brought dishes from their respective cultures to the potluck.

“I think it is very cool that we can learn something new from each other,” Vongkhamchanh said.

Thorp said she looks forward to returning as coach next season.

“We are only losing three seniors,” she said. “I believe we have like 13 juniors coming back. We have a lot of juniors. The next year after that, we might be a little depleted. We are working on the farm team. We’ve got some good freshman, and some really athletic girls that are not afraid to run after the balls.”

Icban said she is excited by the prospect of having Thorp as a coach again next season.

“We have had different coaches (each year) since freshman (year),” Icban said. “Now I just feel more comfortable, more familiar.”

Icban said she plans to focus on tennis during the off season.

“That includes working out in the summer and then fall and then winter, so come tennis season, I am more prepared and feel more confident,” she said.

Vongkhamchanh said her goal this season was to make districts, so she is setting her hopes higher for next year.

“Next season I hope that we (Vongkhamchanh and Icban) will play more together, like more matches, so we can more practice to move past districts before I graduate,” she said.