VHS tennis hit the mid-season mark over the past two weeks.

After starting 3-1, the Pirates began week three with a home match against Curtis. The team played extremely well in a 5-0 win. Wins came from Towner Anderson and Hank Rogers in singles play, and Mason Rice/JJ Bogaard, Cam Bedard/Zach Van Dusen and Alex Hitchcock/Jon Maciejewski in varsity doubles. The JV teams continued their steady improvement with several nice matches and wins.

At the end of the week the Pirates had a rematch against Charles Wright (CW) who had dealt them their only loss so far. The match was close, with Vashon eventually dropping a 2-3 decision. The two wins came at no. 2 singles, where Rogers fought back for a tie-breaker win, and at no. 1 doubles, where Bogaard and Rice took an impressive straight-sets victory. Overall the team played very well, and the result was an improvement from their earlier loss to Charles Wright. Unfortunately, the Saturday round robin matches — which are usually a season favorite — were rained out.

Week four started with home matches against Annie Wright and Cascade Christian. Both schools have young and inexperienced teams for the most part, and the Pirates were able to capitalize with 5-0 and 4-1 wins. Getting wins in singles were Van Dusen, Marley Kott and Bogaard. Some new doubles players also got wins in these matches, including Sam Profit, Evan Keppler, Chad Dublin, Connor Clarke, Kale Scheer, Diego Escame-Hedger and Gus Holmes.

At the end of the week, the team traveled to Fife. Fife was 8-1 and is often pretty tough on their home courts, but this time the Pirates had more firepower and came away with a convincing, if hard fought, 5-0 win. Anderson and Rogers took wins in singles and the doubles teams — Rice/Bogaard, Bedard/Van Dusen and Keppler/Kott — also swept their matches. All week, many JV players also played excellent matches, gaining valuable experience and continuing their impressive progress.

The team finishes midseason with a 7-2 record, with both losses to CW. They will play CW a third and final time on Thursday and Franklin Pierce on Friday — both home matches. The following week they will finish the regular season against a powerful Seattle Academy team on Monday, then finish against CC and Annie Wright on Tuesday and Wednesday.

— Pat Mulvihill is the VHS boys’ tennis coach.