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McNary’s Hannah Childress competes in a singles match during a Greater Valley Conference meet on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at McNary High School in Keizer.
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South Salem’s Loryn Studer plays in a doubles match against McNary during a Greater Valley Conference meet on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at McNary High School in Keizer.
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South Salem’s Jillian Studer plays in a doubles match against McNary during a Greater Valley Conference meet on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at McNary High School in Keizer.
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McNary’s Blanca Tepeque plays in a doubles match against South Salem during a Greater Valley Conference match on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at McNary High School in Keizer.
KEIZER — You never know what you’re going to get when you pair siblings as a doubles team on a tennis court.
Jillian and Loryn Studer are the good kind of example.
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South Salem’s Jillian Studer, left and Loryn Studer play a doubles match during a Greater Valley Conference meet on Thursday, April 21, 2016, at McNary High School in Keizer.
The fraternal twin juniors from South Salem High School continued their undefeated streak as a No. 1 doubles team this season by defeating McNary’s Tayler Rains and Blanca Tepaque 6-0, 6-0 in Thursday’s dual meet win for the Saxons.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot closer because we’ve spent a lot more time together, especially playing sports,” said Loryn Studer, the elder twin by two minutes. “I think just whenever you play a sport with somebody you get a lot closer to them because you see them at like their weakest point and how they like come above things or if they’re having a really good time like how they’re celebrating that.”
The rapport between the twins is something that can’t be taught or learned.
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“We balance each other out on the court, I think, pretty well, and we like having fun out there,” Jillian Studer said. “We get along very well on the court, and it’s helped us as sisters, too, to have each other’s back on and off the court.”
The two have played so many sports together over the years – including soccer, swimming, softball, basketball, cycling, triathlons and duathlons – that it seems like a natural that they would be a good doubles team on the tennis court.
“It goes beyond sports,” first-year South Salem coach Ryan Marshall said. “And as much as they both love tennis and love competing, they have this bigger picture in mind. “They understand that this is a game and as fun as it is to play, they get an opportunity to do it as sisters and that means so much more than who they’re playing that day.”
But bringing the twins together on the court was a long time coming.
While Jillian climbed the ranks of the top singles players in the conference as a freshman, Loryn was recovering from surgery to repair a torn labrum suffered in soccer and aggravated by playing basketball.
“My shoulder blade would pop out,” Loryn said. “It was pretty cool.”
“Her party trick,” Jillian said.
“What parties?” Loryn asked.
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Jillian was South Salem’s No. 1 singles player as a sophomore last season, placed fourth in the Greater Valley Conference district tournament and earned a berth in the state tournament.
At the same time Loryn was getting the hang of the game again and bounced around South Salem’s lineup as a doubles player.
But after playing in a tournament as a doubles team last summer they came to the mutual decision that they wanted to play together as a doubles team this season.
It’s worked out well so far.
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“We’ve grown a lot in the past couple weeks, definitely,” Jillian said. “As a team we’ve been more united on the court in the past couple matches already, and every single time we see more and more improvement, just with coordinating.
“You think as twins we’d be able to communicate with each other. Coach (Nancy) Cox calls us out on it sometimes where we’re not verbally speaking because we just get each other and we know when we’re switching. But we’ve grown a lot with our styles of play to be able to become stronger as a team.”
Also in the dual meet, McNary sophomore Hannah Childress, a state placer in doubles last year, defeated Ariana Burtis 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles.
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, 503-399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehlerStud