Team Tennis Notes: Hanna collects seventh straight crown
Since the Rio Grande Valley team tennis regular season came to end Tuesday night, let’s take a look at where things stand heading into the regional tournaments:
District 32-5A: For the seventh year in a row, the Hanna Golden Eagles took the district title and will advance to the Region IV-5A Tournament on Oct. 28 and 29 at the HEB Tennis Center in Corpus Christi.
The Eagles beat Rivera 17-2 last Saturday to secure the title, but that doesn’t mean the Raiders are left out in the dust. They took second place, and since the top two teams from each district move on, they’re also heading to Corpus Christi.
But for Hanna, it’s another trophy to add to the case.
"We’re pretty happy and excited about it," Hanna coach Terry Hoover said. "It was a tough road."
The Eagles will have their hands full at the regional tournament, with the usual suspects from the Valley, San Antonio and the state’s top-ranked team in New Braunfels all set to be on hand in Corpus Christi.
Only the winner from each regional tournament advances to state. The team tennis structure is set up where there are nine boys matches and nine girls matches (six singles, three doubles for each) and one mixed doubles match for a total of 19 matches. Each player can play in a maximum of two of those matches.
District 31-5A: Harlingen South, which is ranked 16th in the state, cruised to its fourth district title in a row Tuesday in what was another dominating year for coach Noe Stillman and the Hawks.
"I’m always kind of glad to get this behind us," Stillman said. "Now we get down to the nitty-gritty."
The Hawks have lost twice this season — to Katy Seven Lakes, which was ranked sixth at the time, and to Abilene High. They also beat San Antonio Churchill, but with the power that is New Braunfels also in the tournament, Stillman knows it’s going to be a challenge.
"I feel pretty good about our young team," he said. "New Braunfels is just a different animal, they get a lot of these kids from the academy… It’s kind of hard to deal with that."
PSJA North beat Harlingen High earlier in the season and wound up securing second place. With that, it will also advance to the regional tournament.
District 30-5A: The district title came down to the final game of the season, and in the end, the Sharyland Rattlers came out on top.
They beat McAllen High, which secured second place, 12-7 on Tuesday to take the 30-5A crown for the fifth time in a row.
"McHi has got a real strong boys team," Sharyland boys coach Mike Salinas said. "On paper it was pretty close."
The Rattlers took all the girls matches and a couple of boys to fend off a strong Bulldogs team. Both had spots in the regional tournament locked up going into the match, but with the district up for grabs, Tuesday’s game was about as big as it got for the Rattlers. Now, they get to go up against the big boys from the rest of the region.
"It’s always good to test yourself," Salinas said. "That’s where you (know) you stand among these other players."
District 32-4A: After a stellar spring season last year, the Roma Gladiators built off of that and took the 32-4A title for the seventh year in a row.
"I’m excited," Roma coach Eddie Marquez said. "All of them are good … We got to look beyond district, there’s bigger fish out there. My goal is make a big scene out at regionals. I want to shine (there)."
The Gladiators won their 52nd district match in a row to secure the title Tuesday, a rain-shortened 10-2 victory over Mercedes, which claimed second place and is also going to the Region IV-4A Tournament on Oct. 28 and 29 at the Alamo Heights Tennis Center in San Antonio.
The focus now turns to that regional tournament, where Roma, ranked 20th in the state in 4A, hopes to make some noise against the likes of Austin Lake Travis, Boerne High and Alamo Heights.
"For the past, I would say, five, seven, eight years, we’ve been out there and we’ve been knocking on peoples doors," Marquez said. "We’re up there, I know that we can compete with just about anybody. I’m looking forward to it."
Todd Orodenker covers District 32-5A for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can reach him at (956) 982-6663 or via e-mail at torodenker@brownsvilleherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @ToddO243.
