It was probably a good sign for the River Hill tennis team when six of eight players spread across two courts were wearing Hawks' uniforms in the May 14 championship round of the county tennis tournament at Wilde Lake Tennis Club.

On one court, Kelley Miller and Taylor Fenlon were polishing off a three-set win over Centennial's Patti Lin and Chelsea Bradcovich, while one court away River Hill's senior duo of Akshay Raju and Lamie Nguyen were dispatching their younger teammates, junior Joe Jaffe and freshman Rena Shi, in a three-set mixed doubles championship.

That was two first-place trophies and one second place in a brief span of time and space as the Hawks were well on their way to winning their fifth County Cup in six years, scoring 37 points, 11 ahead of defending champion Atholton. Check High School Wrap-up for complete results.

"People always argue that tennis isn't a team sport. For things like this it really does make a difference when you work together as a team. Everyone pulled together and that's why we have (the trophy)," River Hill coach Maureen Shelley said.

Miller and Fenlon have worked together as a team for three sparkling seasons now. Family friends who began playing No. 3 doubles together when Miller was a sophomore and Fenlon a freshman, the pair lost only one match in high school. This is their first postseason as doubles, so they will try to cap their run with a state championship.

"We just figured we've been playing really well the past three years, so it would definitely benefit us if we played together ... we'd get really far," said Miller, a senior.

Miller and Fenlon had to overcome an 0-4 third set deficit to claim their first county crown.

"We have fun together. We laugh a lot, it takes a lot of pressure off," said Fenlon.

Shelley can be forgiven for focusing on Miller and Fenlon in their finals match and ignoring the mixed doubles court. It's hard to coach two of your players on how to beat another two of your players.

"I didn't look. I wasn't watching that one too much," Shelley said.

Experience won out as Nguyen and Raju came back to win the last two sets.

"It was tough because we knew that one of us had to lose, and we are both on the same team," said Nguyen, who won a county title at girls doubles last year.

One of the tournament's biggest upsets came at boys doubles, as the unseeded Howard team of Thomas Hoesman and Kyle Woolaver stormed the field to win their first county title, over Atholton's Sean Hagaman and Brandon Mao, 6-0, 6-4.

Woolaver credited Hoesman's and his natural propensity for doubles play for the win, even though they played one and two singles for Howard during the season.

"I'm mainly a doubles player, just at our school I'm forced to play singles," Woolaver said.

"We like to work at the net, a lot of teams are baseliners and we do well at the net," Hoesman added.

Hoesman and Woolaver were one game away from elimination in the quarterfinals, but came back to win.

Another exciting comeback came in the girls single championship, where Marriotts Ridge senior Haley Katsman dropped the first set and was down in the second set, but outlasted Atholton junior Julia Southerland to win the Mustangs' first tennis trophy.

"I came in second place the last two years, and this is my year to come in first," Katsman said. "It's just a really great way to finish my senior year."

In the boys finals, Mt. Hebron junior Sam Wichlin traded powerful shots with his practice buddy John Healey, an Atholton sophomore, to prevail in straight sets.

Healey and Southerland won a state championship at mixed doubles last season.

"I wanted to attack his backhand. We both play the same type of game because we practice together," said Wichlin, who followed up with a regional championship.

River Hill repeated as tournament champions at Saturday's Region V tournament, with Miller and Fenlon and Nguyen and Raju matching their county tournament performances. Atholton's county runner-up boys doubles team of Hagaman and Mao moved to the top of the podium, defeating Mt. Hebron's David Shulman and Charles Chen, who upset Hoesman and Woolaver in a tight three-setter in the semifinals.

Wilde Lake sophomore Epiphany English pulled off the upset in the girls singles bracket, defeating county champ Katsman in three sets in the semifinals and then defeating Southerland in the finals.

The region's top two finishers advance to the state tournament Friday and Saturday, May 23 and 24 in College Park.

E-mail Andrew Conrad at aconrad@patuxent.com.

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