It’s a position no coach or player wants to be in.

You win your way into a tournament, in this case the South Puget Sound League boys tennis matches conducted this week, and then find yourself lining up in the same bracket as your teammates.

For Auburn, that’s exactly what happened on Tuesday, as the doubles team of freshman Cole Jeter and senior Jake Carson found itself facing teammates, seniors Tim Hartke and Brendon Wilber, in the consolation quarterfinals.

For coach Phil Smetheram, the match was agonizing.

“What a bummer of an opportunity,” he said. “Kentridge and Kentwood have so many teams in it and we have two and they meet each other.”

According to Smetheram, he told the teams before the match that he couldn’t coach them and that they “were on their own.

“You can’t really root for one over the other,” Smetheram added. “It was hard to watch because you want them both to succeed. You see them make mistakes and want to help them out and you can’t. At one point, I had to walk away.”

“It was kind of hard because obviously one of us had to lose,” Hartke said. “It was hard for coach. It was just weird. We mentioned to each other that it felt like we were playing at practice and not deep in a tournament.”

“It was kind of weird because we weren’t expecting to play each other,” Wilber added. “It was kind of crappy.”

For Wilber and Hartke, the match was especially hard because they fell to their teammates 6-2, 6-2, forcing them to play for the No. 9 seed into the West Central District tournament in a loser-out match against Puyallup’s Josiah Wolfson and Spike Ward. Wilber and Hartke, however, rose to the occasion beating the Viking team 6-4, 6-4 and earning a spot at the district tourney.

For Jeter and Carson, the win qualified them for a guaranteed spot at districts. The pair played Kentwood’s Tucker Siegert and Alex Noyes on Wednesday, losing 6-3, 6-4 and earning the No. 7 seed.

“That was pretty good because me and my partner played really well, but it’s tough to play your teammates,” Jeter said. “Because you want them to do well, but you have to beat them.”

“I’m really excited for the tournament,” Carson added. “We’re doing really good and work well together. We’ve got a good seed into districts.”

Jeter and Carson kicked off the SPSL tourney with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Max Ward and Dalton Avey in the first round. A second-round 6-2, 6-0 loss to Puyallup’s Michael and Brian Pinkard set up the meeting with their teammates.

For Hartke and Wilber, a first-round 6-3, 6-0 loss to Jefferson’s Kyle Creek and Brandyn Gomez sent them to the consolation round where they defeated Emerald Ridge’s Scott Medlock and Josh Guerra 6-1, 3-6 and 6-2.

Despite the team’s loss to their teammates, Hartke said he was happy with the team’s performance.

“I’m very pleased with how we did,” Hartke said. “Me and my partner were hoping to just make it to the crossovers.”

Smetheram agreed.

“We’re extremely pleased,” Smetheram said. “We were talking about it today with some of the parents who were saying it was cool to have two teams still advancing. Usually Kentwood and Kentridge are so dominant so to have two teams is cool.”

The SPSL tournament concluded Wednesday with results unavailable at press time.

The district tourney is played May 19-22 at Sprinker Recreation Center in Tacoma.

ALSO: Auburn Riverside’s Ian Downey also qualified for the SPSL tourney with his 4-6 regular-season finish. He was defeated 6-2, 6-0 by Jefferson’s James Lee to knock him out of the tourney.