The largest contingent of Juneau players ever sent to Whitehorse was not enough for the Alaskans to maintain possession of the Capital Cup tennis trophy on Friday and Saturday.
Juneau sent 11 players to play against 20 Whitehorse players in the sister cities’ competition, but the Cup remained in the Yukon capital with Whitehorse winning by a score of 309-290 at the Mount McIntyre tennis courts in Whitehorse.
“We’re just really happy to win after a while,” said Tennis Yukon head coach Jan Polivka. “Everything was great. Everything was well organized by (Tennis Yukon president) Stacy (Lewis).
“As head coach, I’m happy all the kids did very, very well.”
The biannual Capital Cup takes place indoors in Juneau in the off-season and outdoors in Whitehorse during the summer. It dates back to 1983, but was discontinued after 2000. Saturday’s win for Whitehorse was just the third since the competition was resurrected in 2008.
It was also the first time Whitehorse players won it at home.
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“The matches went awesome,” said Polivka. “Everyone from Juneau, we scheduled matches with similar level players from Whitehorse, and we collected 19 points more than Juneau, which is very close - but not as close as last time.”
Juneau maintained possession of the Cup in March, winning by the miniscule margin of 293-292. The points represent games won over 51 pro-set matches (first to win eight games) in the competition.
Polivka and teammate Kyle Demchuk, both of whom are past Yukon men’s champions, went undefeated over three matches apiece in the open men’s category. Whitehorse’s Mike Russo and Kieran Halliday won all but one out of their four matches.
The Capital Cup took place just a week after Whitehorse players had some success at the 81st annual Stanley Park Open in Vancouver.
Of the five junior players that went south, Kieran Halliday had the greatest success, reaching the quarterfinal of the U16 boys draw.
Aline Halliday, teamed up with a player from Calgary, also took in a win in U14 girls doubles, defeating the eventual tournament champions.
“All the others lost in the first round, but they played really well and they were all close matches,” said Polivka.
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com