South dominates 31-5A tennis tournaments

ALAMO — Harlingen South won all but one finals match Tuesday, giving them four individual titles en route to another District 31-5A title and another trip to the regional tournament in San Antonio.

Going into the tournament, not all of coach Noe Stillman’s squad earned top seeds,  but what surprised him the most were titles in men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Both title matches featured an all-Harlingen South final.

In the boys doubles, Shane Kyral and Dylan Eizember defeated teammates Devin Kyral and Carlos Perez 6-3, 6-1. In mixed doubles, Bennett Holder and Danielle Stillman knocked off their teammates Patrick McCullum and Celeste Garza 6-0, 6-3 for the district crown.

“On our boys doubles and mixed doubles I don’t think anyone thought we were as good as the kids were,” Noe Stlillman said. “They won handily.”

Noe Stillman said McCullum and Garza beat a tough Harlingen High team to set up the all Hawks final.

In the boys singles final, No. 1 seed Tomas Stillman breezed through the bracket and held nothing back against Ron Verano of Edinburg High, defeating him 6-0, 6-1. South also won the girls doubles title, where Kate Holder and Ashley Winter pulled off the 6-2, 6-1 victory against Harlingen’s Haley Swanberg and Cassie Divin.

The only individual title that slipped away from the Hawks was in girls singles, as PSJA North’s Elaine Barron defeated South’s Kelsey Kim 6-1, 6-3 for the crown.

Nevertheless, the Hawks are on their way to San Antonio and coach Stillman and his team knew this was going to happen. All year they’ve been preparing for the regional tournament by scheduling tough competition.

“Some of our upper level kids compete at the state level and we needed to see people outside of our area who might be people we run into at the regional meet,” he said. “We got a pretty good idea as far as who we’re going to have to beat and we’re going to have to go in there not being a favorite and just go.”