Oak Harbor senior Kara Merriman moved one step closer to state, finishing in second place at the WesCo North tennis meet Friday at Stanwood.

After earning two first-day wins on Thursday, Merriman cruised to a semifinal victory over Kayla Anderson of Cascade, 6-2, 6-1 on Friday.

The championship wasn’t so easy for Merriman, however, as she suffered her second loss to Chandi Sun of Cascade, 6-4, 6-4, and just her third overall loss this season.

“She played her much better than she did the first time, she just came up a little short,” head coach Horace Mells said.

Merriman, a two seed, gets a tough draw in the first round of the district tournament against Everett’s Jackie Mills, who suffered her first loss of the season in the first round of the WesCo South division tournament and was bumped to a third seed.

“She had a real strong season, she’s going to be tough,” Mells said.

Oak Harbor’s only other singles player, Amy Berg, lost a close first round match on Thursday, 6-4, 7-5 to Tori Jirak of Monroe.

The doubles team of Pristine Santos and Joan Gailo won their first match 6-1, 6-0, over Jessie and Jenny Frable of Arlington before losing their quarterfinal matchup 6-2, 6-1 to Angie Leon and Tara Naylor from Cascade. They then won 7-5, 6-2 over Sandra Lambert and Sarah Leopold, before falling in the consolation finals 7-5, 6-2 to Sarah LeBar and Andrea Wood of Cascade.

A win there would have given them a shot at the district tournament.

The other Wildcat doubles team of Kristi Goebel and Abigail Pruss were eliminated early in a 6-0, 6-0 loss to LeBar and Wood.

The district tournament begins tomorrow, May 26 at Arlington High School and runs through Saturday, May 28.

The top three finishers will advance to the 4A state meet in Spokane, June 3-4.