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Photo by Eric Engman

FAIRBANKS — In prep sports these days, a 4-3 tennis meet between West Valley and Lathrop is about as certain as death and taxes.

For the fifth straight time, the clash between the Wolfpack and Malemutes was decided by the slimmest of margins on Wednesday at the Dan Ramras Community Tennis Courts. This one held extra drama as it took an epic comeback from West Valley to spoil Lathrop’s undefeated Mid Alaska Conference season.

Lathrop edged West Valley in the season opener on Aug. 13 and jumped to a 3-0 lead on Wednesday.

West Valley then needed to sweep the remaining four matches, but it dropped the first set in two of them. Hard-fought victories from singles players Caitlin Deutsch and Ken Sample brought West Valley within 3-2, and then the doubles team of Aurora Roth and Loni Ellsworth leveled the meet with an easy win.

That meant the deciding match pitted West Valley’s Forest Owen and Joe Sample against Zach Fitzgerald and Drew Lanning in boys doubles. The Lathrop duo placed third at the state tournament last year and grabbed the first set 6-3.

That’s when Owen and Sample discarded complex tactics and decided to just play tennis.

“After the first set, I just kind of woke up and I started hitting the ball better,” Sample said.

When Lanning noticed that West Valley was handily winning the simultaneously-played girls doubles match, he figured out that boys doubles was for all the marbles.

“We got really nervous ... just because everything hinged on our match,” said Lanning, who overcame nerves — and match point against Ken Sample — on Aug. 13 but couldn’t repeat that effort Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Owen and Sample were unaware of the meet score, nor did they want to be informed, Owen said.

“We didn’t know until after the match,” said Owen, who was celebrating Senior Night. “Our coach (Debbie Miller) had called us over and we didn’t want to talk to anyone.”

An unusual play with Lanning serving in the second set at 3-4, deuce (no ad scoring) put West Valley on the brink of forcing a decisive third-set tiebreaker. Lanning missed his first serve and then surprisingly went for an underhanded serve that landed in the net.

“I was just nervous and I have tendonitis and my arm gets sore,” Lanning said. “I wasn’t serving good all day so I just figured I’d get it in, and then I didn’t get it in so it wasn’t even worth it.”

The next game, Owen closed out the second set with a big serve at deuce.

Minutes later in the tiebreaker, another bizarre play went West Valley’s way.

The Wolfpack led 3-0 when a Fitzgerald mishit at the net sent the ball heading off the court at an extreme angle. But Joe Sample chased it down and smacked a forehand at knee-height around the net post and into Lathrop’s court.

“I wasn’t even sure if that was a legal shot,” Sample said.

Lanning, who collected the ball on one hop, didn’t think it was. But Owen suspected the shot should count, then had his hunch confirmed by the courtside umpire for a 4-0 West Valley lead.

“I don’t think anyone in Fairbanks has ever done that,” Owen said of Sample’s shot.

But Lathrop wasn’t going down without a fight, as Lanning and Fitzgerald saved three match points to pull within 6-4. Then Lanning’s return of a monstrous Owen serve sailed long.

“They played their butts off and they’re a great team,” Owen said of his opponents.

The best approach for his underdog team was not to worry about the crosstown rivalry or Lathrop’s undefeated record, Owen said.

“We just block everything out,” he said.

Lathrop, at 9-1, is still the regular-season conference winner, thereby earning the top seed for the region tournament Oct. 3-4. West Valley, 8-2, will be seeded second.

The match scores were as follows: No. 1 boys singles, Sean Sullivan (L) defeated Sean Markle, 6-1, 6-1; No. 2, Ken Sample (W), who normally plays No. 1 but was strategically moved down on Wednesday, topped Tyler Loud, 5-6, 6-3, 7-3; No. 1 girls singles, Mackenzie Calvillo (L), beat Teresa Larry, 6-1, 6-0; No. 2, Deutsch (W) nipped Annelise Bachelder, 6-5, 6-3; boys doubles, Owen and Joe Sample (W) edged Zach Fitzgerald and Lanning, 3-6, 6-3, 7-4 ; girls doubles, Aurora Roth and Loni Ellsworth (W) handled Boertje and Garrett, 6-0, 6-1; and mixed doubles, Kade Fitzgerald and Becca Gryder (L) dismissed Lee Edwards and Jenna Powers, 6-3, 6-2.

Contact staff writer Matias Saari at 459-7591.