Tennis team members earn top honors at tourney

Members of the Mountain Home tennis team.

Three Mountain Home tennis players fared well at the Treasure Valley Junior Circuit #2 Tennis Tournament at Boise State University's Appleton Tennis Center last week.

Ricky Guadarrama and Andrew Martin from the Tiger tennis team played in the Boys 16s tournament, while Brittany Ryan, 13, a 2007 Tiger Tennis Summer Camp graduate, played in the Girls 14s tournament.

"I was very proud of all three players," said Mountain Home Tiger tennis coach Tamzy House. "It takes a lot of courage to jump into a USTA Junior Tournament and compete. They did Mountain Home proud. The junior circuit tournaments are satellite tournaments held around the Boise area.

The circuit schedule culminates in the show-case Grand Prix Junior Championship Tournament to be held the last week in July at the Boise Racquet and Swim Club. All three players have qualified to participate in the Grand Prix."

Ricky Guadarrama won his first-round match, 6-0, 6-0, and then faced the number one seed in the semi-finals, battling tough and winning in three sets, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6. In the finals he faced Boise High's Jake Huang, and lost the first set, 0-6, but battled back in the second set before losing, 5-7, to finish second.

"This was the first time that Ricky stayed in the main draw to the finals of a USTA junior tournament," said Coach House. "He just broke through several tennis 'ceilings' this tournament. I'm very excited for him!"

Andrew Martin battled hard and won several games, but lost both his first-round match and consolation match.

Brittany Ryan, who will be an eighth-grade student this fall lost in the first round of the main draw, 1-6, 1-6 against the girl who ended up winning the Girls 14s. She then got a win by default and advanced to the consolation finals, where she battled for over two hours to win in three sets, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6.

"She picked up the racquet last year at the Tiger Tennis Summer Camp and was a natural," said Coach House. She completed this year's summer camp and decided to join USTA and 'dive' into the junior circuit -- very courageous. She had a great learning experience on 'how to do a tournament' and she was successful at it."

Coach House indicated the three players, plus other Mountain Home Tiger tennis team members, will be playing in other junior tournaments this summer.