Sharyland has big day on courts

MISSION — An all-Sharyland boys singles final may not be an ideal situation, but Rafa Quesada and Andres Tajonar wouldn’t have it any other way.

In a match that was hard for Ratters fans and teammates to pick sides, Tajonar defeated Quesada 6-3, 6-2 to win the District 30-5A championship Saturday at Sharyland High School. The victory sends junior Tajonar to the Region IV-5A tournament in San Antonio in two weeks.

“I play with (Quesada) every day,” Tajonar said. “We are good friends. It was a good environment.”

The good news for Sharyland is that Quesada, a senior, also advances to regionals. The top two move on.

Quesada, who advanced to regionals as a doubles player two years ago, relished the opportunity to play with who he called the best player on the team.

“When you are the No. 1 and No. 2 players on the team, you always want to play each other,” Quesada said.

There was also an all-Sharyland battle for second place in girls singles. Eryn Jones overcame cramping in her leg to beat teammate Stephanie Siehr 6-4, 6-1 and to extend her season.

Earlier in the day, McAllen High’s Diana Gonzalez beat Jones 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 in the girls singles championship.

Joining Diana at regionals will be the Bulldogs’ boys doubles team of Manuel Brown and Gustavo Ramos, who won the 30-5A title by beating Sharyland’s Jonathan Alhalel and Rueben Wisdom 7-5, 6-1.

In all, Sharyland is sending three individuals and three doubles teams to regionals.

One of the teams is girls doubles champion Camila Anguiano and Ashtyn Egger, who defeated McAllen Memorial’s Leslie Aguirre and Willow Meline.

The District 30-5A tournament was only the second competition that Anguiano and Egger had played together. They won the championship without dropping a set.

“The last tournament we played super awesome,” Egger said about the limited time she has competed with Anguiano. “We won first in that one.”

The pair won the La Feria tournament before the district tournament and carried the momentum over.

“We were super confident coming into district,” Anguiano said.

In mixed doubles, Sharyland’s Kevin Gonzalez and Amber Cisneros took first. The seniors are playing together for the first time this season. Kevin took last season off to concentrate on his studies.

Now that they are headed to regionals, he is glad he returned to the sport.

“I wanted to play (mixed doubles) with somebody,” Kevin said. “I had tried several partners and ended up playing with (Cisneros). It has turned out really well. We talk to each other really well and we ended up winning this tournament.”

McAllen Rowe’s mixed doubles team of Tobi Abesamis and Drew Duarte needed to play a second-place match to advance to regionals, defeating Mission High’s Kelvin Dorado and Deneira Hernandez 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.

Peter Rasmussen covers high school sports for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 683-4448 or via e-mail at prasmussen@themonitor.com.