VANCOUVER, Wash. – The Auburn Mountainview Lions have their first state tennis medal.

Make that tennis medals – as in two of them. Because it was the twosome of Paul Harris and Nick Allen who got the job done on Saturday afternoon with a sixth-place finish in boys doubles at the Class 3A state tournament.

Harris and Allen played their way into the medal round on Saturday morning at the Vancouver Tennis Center, defeating Nikhl Das and Elliott Appeal of North Thurston in a consolation semifinal match, 6-1, 0-6, 6-0.

That gave them a shot at Taylor Hunt and Garrett Vincent of Seattle Prep in the consolation final for fourth and sixth places. But in that one, the Panther pair prevailed, 6-2, 6-3.

Auburn Mounainview is in its fourth year as a program.

Harris and Allen were the only two Auburn-area players to come home with medal. Mountainview teammates Molly Henderson and Maggie Henderson were one win away from getting into the 3A girls doubles consolation final, but came up short against Union’s Megan Carter and Helen Tam in a Saturday morning consolation semi, 6-2 6-1.

At the Class 4A tournament in Kennewick, Auburn’s Sandy Dennett in girls singles and Trojan teammates Josh Jeter and Travis Hanley in boys doubles ran into the same situation.

Dennett fell to Central Kitsap’s Corinne Wurden in her consolation semifinal, 6-1, 6-1, while Jeter and Hanley were eliminated in their consolation semi by Garfield’s Frank Pavia and Wilson Platt, 6-1, 6-2.

FAST START ON FIRST DAY

Harris and Allen, Dennett, along with Jeter and Hanley all won the first-round matches on Friday before running into a bump in their respective quarterfinals.

In Vancouver, Harris and Allen won a three-set first-rounder against West Valley’s Daniel Wenker and Cooper Anderson, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. The Auburn Mountainview duo then shook off a 6-0, 6-0 quarterfinal loss and breezed past Union’s Tommy Foster and Johnny Ung in the consolation quarters, 6-0, 6-1, to remain in the medal picture.

Dennett, who won one of her matches in last year’s Class 3A state tournament, captured her 4A singles opener on Friday at the Tri-City Court Club, defeating Jasmine Singh of Inglemoor, 6-3, 6-4. She dropped a 6-1, 6-0 decision to Elaine Baik of Kamiak in the quarterfinals, but then rallied in the consolation quarterfinals to beat Leslie Ho of Spokane’s Central Valley, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2.

Jeter and Haley lost both of their 3A state matches in 2008. But they got right into the win column on Friday, defeating Tyler Van Grunsven and Ryan Clark of Skyline in the first round, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. They came up short against Wenatchee in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 6-4, then came back to beat Mead in the consolation quarters, 6-2, 6-4.

Jefferson’s combo Mackenzie Qualls, who played at state last year, and Caroline Min went out in two in 4A girls doubles on Friday,, but not without a battle in their second one. After dropping a 6-2, 7-5 opener to Melanie Wang and Chelsa Tsujii of Eastlake, they took Puyallup’s Kaylyn Brown and Emily Sullivan to three sets before falling, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-5).

The Hendersons from Mountainview lost their first-round 3A girls doubles match, and then dropped the first set of their consolation opener against Capital’s Natalie Nicholson and Stephanie Hughes. But the two Lions came back to eliminate their Capital counterparts, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 victory, then got past Hanford’s Cassandra Dicken and Becky Sharpe in the consolation quarterfinals, 7-5, 7-5.