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Tennis: Coronado's quest: El Paso program knocks out Marcus, Carroll and Coppell
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
For the first time in program history, the UIL Class 5A Region I Tournament was a two-day event for Coppell's tennis team.
The Cowboys won their first two matches Friday to advance to the semifinals. However, the squads weren't done there, defeating Lubbock Coronado Saturday in a thrilling match, 10-9, to qualify for the finals before coming up short later in the day against top seed El Paso Coronado, 10-3.
"That was our first time to make it that far or even to make it to the second day," said Jane Jackson, Coppell head coach. "We were very excited. Obviously, we would have liked to win it all, and we had some chances in our last match so that was disappointing. But we understand that Coronado has a great team and that we played well to make the finals.
Southlake Carroll was also in Abilene for the regional tournament and advanced to the semifinals, while Marcus saw its run end in the second round. Both teams were also eliminated by Coronado.
The Dragons defeated San Angelo Central in the first round, 10-5, before topping Mansfield, 10-0 and losing in the semifinals, 10-5.
Marcus defeated North Crowley in the first round, 10-2, before bowing out with a 10-3 loss.
The win over Crowley was Marcus head coach Kelly Langdon's 200th career victory in 12 years at Marcus.
"We played well against North Crowley," he said. "It was kind of lopsided in their team structure where I thought their boys would be better but we really just rolled through in girls."
Marcus led, 5-2, after doubles and clinched the win in girls singles.
"We were a little unfortunate drawing Coronado in the second round," Langdon added. "They're traditionally a solid team and they have a very deep team on both sides.
"I thought we really competed hard and I don't really think the 10-3 score was reflective of how tight the match was. We really had some good possibilities to leave the doubles portion down or even up, 4-3, but we let a couple slip away and there is no room for error against a team like that."
Against Coronado, Marcus received wins at No. 1 girls singles (Preethi Kasilingam), No. 1 girls doubles (Kasilingam and Anna McMullen) and in mixed doubles (David Wittkower and Tanya Jacques).
The Lady Dragons, meanwhile, competed in Abilene without the services of Kellie Anderson, who was ill.
"Losing Kellie was big," said Corey Aldridge, Carroll head coach. "We were leaving at about 1:15 p.m. and we found out at 12:30 that she wasn't going to be able to make the trip. So I had to tell the team just before we left that she wasn't playing. It caused us to change our doubles teams and forced everyone in girls singles to play up a spot. But we can't make excuses and even though we didn't have Kellie, we still played well and fought hard. We did a good job of playing through adversity."
Against Coronado, Carroll trailed just 4-3 after doubles but couldn't keep pace in singles.
"I was pleased with our doubles play," Aldridge said. "But they have very strong boys and then they came out and won 4-of-5 girls matches. We were up in three matches left on the court, so I think we could have gotten to eight wins maybe.
"Overall, I was very proud of how we played. We faced the toughest first opponent in Central, who was very close to getting a seed, and went out there and took care of business. And I think Mansfield was just a little overmatched in the second round."
With Anderson out, Carroll earned the No. 4 seed while Coppell received the No. 3 seed despite falling against the Dragons during the regular season.
While the Cowboys came up short in the finals against Coronado, the score could have been closer than the final margin as Coppell led in four of the five boys singles matches still on the court.
"We had two matches that went three sets and we lost them both," Jackson said. "That could have changed a lot because being down or up, 4-3, is such a big difference from being down, 5-2."
Logan Astudillo and Julianne Cauley won in doubles for the Cowgirls, while Abby White and Josh Abaya won their mixed match and White also won in girls singles.
"Abby came through for us and I thought our boys might hold us in there," Jackson said. "We just dug too big of a hole. I would have been interested to see how the rest of the matches played out because I think we could have gotten to eight or nine wins."
Coppell's banner moment in the tournament came in the semifinals against Lubbock Coronado when the team trailed, 9-5, before storming back for the win.
Coppell was swept in girls doubles and was down, 4-3, entering the singles portion. But after Coronado claimed 5-of-6 on the girls side, the pressure fell squarely on the shoulders of the Cowboys and they delivered by sweeping all six matches.
"That was where all the excitement was," Jackson said. "It was awesome. Coronado was seeded just ahead of us, so we knew it was going to be tough. We were really down in doubles but Sid (Bagaria) and Jacob (Villanueva) managed to pull out a three-setter and I think that started to swing the momentum and Abby got a huge win in girls singles for us."
After the Cowboys procured singles wins from Tyler Stayer, Zixiao Li, Abaya, Kihwan Lee and Villanueva, the pressure again fell on Bagaria, who delivered a 6-4 win in the second set to advance Coppell.
"I was really proud of him," Jackson said. "The pressure was really on and he came through. That was huge."
Coppell opened the tournament with a convincing win over Duncanville, 10-1.
"We were really fired up," Jackson said. "We came out and took control by winning all of the doubles matches except in mixed. Duncanville has a good team with a lot of talent and never gave up. They kept a lot of matches close and fought hard."
The Panthers' lone win came from their mixed team - which included two-time state finalist in girls singles Jocelle Rudico - which defeated the tandem of Abby White and Josh Abaya in three sets. However, White rebounded to defeated Rudico in singles (6-1, 6-4).
"That was great to see," Jackson said. "To not only bounce back from losing in mixed but to beat such a talented player like Jocelle was impressive for Abby."
The team continued with a convincing win against Grapevine, 10-0.
"We were expecting Grapevine to be a strong team," Jackson said, "but after winning all of the doubles matches and all but two of them in straight sets, we were feeling pretty good and were playing some of our better tennis."
Coppell will take a few days off before getting back on the court in preparation for the spring season.
"It never stops," Jackson said. "We're going to get caught up on our schoolwork and then start getting ready for January and see if we can maybe get a few state champs. We have a lot of seniors, but we also have a lot of youth on our boys team, so we're excited. Hopefully this momentum carries over and we'll see if we want to change up any of our combinations and maximize our chances."
Carroll, meanwhile, will have a similar offseason resuming practice Monday when Aldridge gets a feel for where everyone feels comfortable during the individual spring season.
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