During Tuesday’s 1A Emerald City League tennis showdown against previously unbeaten University Prep, senior twins Grant and Marcus Munoz, playing No. 1 doubles, were thrown into the pressure cooker.

Veteran head coach Bill Armstrong said in order to win the team total, his Owls would likely have to win two of the first three matches on the court, which consisted of No. 1 singles player Trym Torvund taking on Puma freshman Bayard Blair, freshman Grant Gibson against senior Daniel Hasle, and the Munoz twins facing off against Sam Thomsen and Saul Fleming.

Armstrong’s prognosis was spot on, as Torvund, last year’s state runner-up, made quick work of Blair 6-3, 6-0 and Gibson lost to Hasle in a third set tiebreaker 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (5-10), setting up a marathon match between the Munoz twins and Thomsen and Fleming. The Munoz twins won a thrilling match that also went to a tiebreak, 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10-5), leading the Owls to a narrow 3-2 win.

“They’re playing smarter, and not over-hitting shots,” said Armstrong on the Munoz twins’ improvements since the beginning of the year. “They’ve really stepped up, their serves are much stronger and more consistent.”

Finishing out the scoring for the Owls were Ethan Hayden and Bob Gardner beating Clay Moore and Daniel Kwak in yet another tiebreaker, 6-4, 3-6, 1-0 (10-7). Overlake’s No. 3 doubles Pavin Browne and Mac Hewitt lost to Pete Thomsen and Andy Paige 6-7, 2-6.

In the Munoz twins’ back-and-forth match, they dominated the first set and lost a couple crucial game points in the second set to force the league’s new “super tiebreaker,” which is an alternate-serve, race-to-10 points to decide the match.

Playing in their first match in a couple weeks due to Overlake’s spring break and project week, the twins responded to the pressure and jumped out to a 7-2 lead at one point, winning 10-5 and enabling Armstrong to breathe a sigh of relief.

“To have to come back to win the super tiebreaker, the pressure was on,” Armstrong noted. “They got up early, and rode some unforced errors, and played good, smart tennis.”

The twins seem to be communicating well on the court, a marked improvement on their freshman campaign and an aspect of their game that will have to be firing on all cylinders next month.

“I’m a twin, and I believe that communication has been going on for a long, long time,” said Armstrong. “With twins, it’s just a little glance, and they got the story straight.”

Grant and Marcus, the team’s co-captains, said that they felt good to be back in a pressure-packed match after the long break.

“For being our first match in a couple weeks… we felt good, we felt solid,” said Grant.

Added Marcus, “We definitely have better movement, and our consistency has gone up a ton.”

While Marcus has been to state twice for doubles, the team’s only other state returner, Torvund (right), looked especially sharp in his second set sweep of Blair.

“We’ve asked him a bunch of times, after he’s won the first set, to go out and get a (sweep) in the second set, and sometimes he’s a little too casual,” Armstrong said of Torvund, who never lost a set until the state finals last season. “He did not play well the last time he played against (Blair), although he won 6-4, 6-4. I think he wanted, in his Trym way, to show better and he played brilliantly in the second set.”

The lanky lefty himself said that as the season progresses, he is seeing himself making fewer unforced errors, the key to winning at singles tennis.

“I felt pretty good,” said Torvund, adding that he has been trying to stay more focused at the back end of a tennis match. “I’m getting a little more consistent after playing a couple matches now.”

As far as the postseason, which begins on May 12 at Nordstrom Tennis Center in Seattle when the Owls head to the Emerald City League Tournament, Armstrong is excited about the prospect of sending the twins, in addition to Torvund, to the Big Dance.

“We’d love to get the twins there – oh, my gosh,” he said. “Grant hasn’t gotten to go, and Marcus has been there two years in a row. It would be a real nice parting gift from the program to get both of them in. It would be awesome.”