Saturday, October 28, 2000

Abilene High cruises into regional tennis semis

District 4-5A provides two teams in regional semifinals

By Mark Wilson
Reporter-News Staff Writer

The members of the Abilene High tennis team are realizing how strong District 4-5A really is as they compete in the Region I-5A team tennis tournament that began Friday.

The District 4-5A champion Eagles strolled past previously unbeaten Flower Mound Marcus 10-1 Friday morning at Rose Park Tennis Center, then thumped Duncanville 11-0 at Abilene High to advance to today’s semifinal round. Midland High, the runner-up behind AHS, falling 17-2 in the district final, also showed its overall strength Friday with a 10-2 decision over Lewisville Marcus and a 10-1 win over Weatherford.

“It’s a lot different than district — the competition … how strong District 4-5A is,’’ said senior Steven Herrera, a three-year veteran of the AHS varsity.

Herrera teamed with Brent Eaton for a 6-2, 6-0 victory in the match against Flower Mound Marcus, but didn’t get to play singles before the match was called. Against Duncanville, Herrera and Eaton captured a 6-1, 6-0 win in doubles, and Herrera was a 6-0, 6-0 winner in singles.

“It was pretty easy,’’ he said. “It’s going to be a lot tougher tomorrow. We know not to take anybody lightly. We know tomorrow we have to step it up more.’’

The second-seeded Eagles, seeking their second straight team tennis state championship, are scheduled to play third-seeded Lubbock Coronado starting at 8 a.m. this morning at the Abilene Christian University courts. In the other half of the bracket, fourth-seeded Midland High will take on top-seeded El Paso Coronado at Hardin-Simmons University. The semifinal winners are scheduled to meet starting at 1:30 p.m., today at ACU, for the right to advance to the state tournament in Austin.

The 16-team tournament featured matches on Friday at Cooper High School, ACU, HSU, both Madison and Clack Middle School, as well as Abilene High.

AHS head coach Fred Scott said that if the rain that is in the forecast for today forces the matches indoors, the Eagles will play both their semifinal match and potential championship matchup at the Abilene Country Club. The other semifinal matchup would be moved to Fairway Oaks Country Club in case of rain.

Scott indicated the Eagles just stuck with the basics as they were calmly ripping their opponents to shreds. In the 10 matches that were played against Duncanville, the Eagles won all in straight sets and took 12 of the 20 sets played at love.

“We came out and did things right,’’ said Scott, whose team is now 14-3 on the season. “We tried to stay with the fundamentals early on. They were intimidated and we jumped out to a big lead, and our kids put it away.’’

Duncanville head coach Jeff Matlock, who has three seniors, said the Eagles were “very strong. They have lots of state-ranked players. They are the strongest team we’ve played all year, by far. It was just fun to go against them.’’

“Fun’’ was an interesting way of categorizing the Eagles’ domination of the Panthers. In addition to Herrera and Bryce Hicks in boys singles, the girls doubles teams of Kama Scott-Jessica Paup along with Catherine Roark-Emily Antilley all posted 6-0, 6-0 victories over Duncanville.

The Eagles’ meeting with Lubbock Coronado is a rematch of last year’s regional semifinal contest, which Abilene High won by a slim margin on the way to the school’s second state title in team tennis.

“I was afraid the kids would look too far ahead but they didn’t,’’ Scott said. “They stayed focused and played well. (Lubbock Coronado) is a longtime rivalry. I didn’t have to say a whole lot to the kids because every year we end up playing them. Last year we won 10-9, and I’m sure it will be close again.’’

The only setback that prevented a sweep for the Eagles Friday came in boys singles against Marcus, when senior Jacob Herman retired from his match. But Scott said there were no areas of play in which he was disappointed, and he was happy that his Eagles didn’t let their level of play drop because the competition wasn’t competitive overall.

“Our kids didn’t do that. The kids came out and took care of business,’’ he said. “I felt like we were quite a bit stronger than both teams.’’

Scott said that Abilene High’s results of the individual matches against Flower Mound Marcus had been misplaced and were not available.

First round — El Paso Coronado def. Irving MacArthur 10-0; Amarillo Tascosa def. Arlington Martin 10-7; Midland High def. Lewisville Marcus 10-2; Weatherford def. El Paso Americus 10-8; Colleyville Heritage def. El Paso Franklin 10-4; Lubbock Coronado def. Mansfield 10-6; Duncanville def. El Paso Bel Air 15-4; Abilene High def. Flower Mound Marcus 10-1.

Note: Individual match results not available for first round.

Quarterfinals — El Paso Coronado 10, Amarillo Tascosa 2; Midland High 10, Weatherford 1; Lubbock Coronado 11, Colleyville Heritage 1; Abilene High 11, Duncanville 0.

Loser’s bracket — Irving MacArthur def. Arlington Martin; Flower Mound Marcus def. El Paso Bel Air.

Abilene High 11, Duncanville 0

BOYS

Singles — Beau Cox def. Steven Valentine 6-2, 6-0; Bryce Hicks def. Sujal Parikh 6-0, 6-0; Nathan Johnson def. Jeff Stokes 6-0, 6-3; Steven Herrera def. Chris Cotton 6-0, 6-0.

Doubles — Cox-Johnson def. Valentine-Julian Sontag 6-2, 6-0; Jacob Herman-Hicks def. Parikh-Stokes 6-1, 6-0; Herrera-Brent Eaton def. Cotton-Chris Hulhouser 6-1, 6-1.

GIRLS

Singles — No matches completed.

Doubles — Megan Langston-Elizabeth McCracken def. Maria Williams-Elysia Sloan 6-4, 6-3; Kama Scott-Jessica Paup def. Louise Ann Kreis-Kiki Beck 6-0, 6-0; Catherine Roark-Emily Antilley def. Cathy Fisher-Swallow 6-0, 6-0.

Mixed doubles — Quentin Walker-Stephanie Cox over Bilhartz-McCampbell by default.

Contact assistant sports editor Mark Wilson at 676-6775 or wilsonm@abinews.com. We are on the Web at http://sports.texnews.com.