The Russellville High School varsity girls’ tennis team finished runner-up at the Class 4A-5A Section 8 tournament last week, clinching a spot in the upcoming AHSAA state tournament held in Mobile. The RHS boys’ team, meanwhile, finished third.
The girls’ program’s run of section titles came to an end with the second place finish, but head coach Charlotte Dollar said it was a lofty accomplishment for this team which came into the campaign without a lot of varsity match experience.
“It’s amazing, and we’re not disappointed at all. We’re thrilled with second place,” Dollar said. “I’m really proud of how the girls have advanced from where we were at the start of the year. Coming into the year, only two girls had experience playing varsity matches.
“They’ve really come a long way,” she added. “A lot of tennis is mental, so at the beginning of the season they would get upset if they were struggling, but they’ve learned to handle that. They’ve learned how to turn around when they start getting behind and learned to focus and reset and move on and that’s paid off.”
Deshler won the section championship with 54 team points, giving the champs plenty of cushion between them and second. It was the fight for second place which proved tougher. Russellville eked by Wilson with 37 points to the Lady Warriors’ 31 points.
Dollar said the race for runner-up came down to a few matches.
“It was really close with Wilson,” she said. “The girls won all the second round matches in doubles and made it to the finals in every doubles spot. That was huge in giving us enough points to finish second in the section.
“LeAnn Strickland is our other girls’ coach and she does an amazing job,” Dollar added. “She works with the doubles teams and it’s her work and effort that helped us get section runner-up. We wouldn’t have gotten where we have without her.”
The doubles pairings for RHS were Lily Cate Pace and Lakin Derrick, Kennley Francisco and Josie Burcham, and Maria Gonzalez and Nelly Juarez.
As Dollar said, all three doubles teams made it to the finals to face Deshler, but Gonzalez and Juarez were the sole pair to defeat DHS in the championship. Gonzalez and Juarez needed three sets to dispatch their opponents but ultimately did so 4-6, 6-4, 10-3.
In singles play, Russellville’s six competitors were Pace, Derrick, Gonzalez, Francisco, Burcham, and Ella Copeland.
Pace, Derrick, Gonzalez, and Francisco were each knocked out in the semifinal round, but Burcham and Copeland advanced all the way to the finals where they were eventually defeated by Deshler’s two finalists in the third and sixth flights. Burcham fell 0-6, 5-7 to DHS’ Campbell Norris and Copeland lost 4-6, 1-6 to Natalie Rogers.
Next up for the Lady Golden Tigers is the state tournament in Mobile April 21-25.
“You know, the state tournament is about luck as much as anything else. It’s a blind draw so a lot of it is about luck with who you draw in that first round,” Dollar said. “These girls are definitely very capable of competing, but it’s all about who you draw when you get down there.”
In the boys’ section tournament, Russellville finished third with 21 team points behind champion Deshler and runner-up Wilson.
In doubles play, RHS’ teams of Josue Tomas and Josue de LaRosa, David Tomas and Drew Strickland, and Braxton Duncan and Jeremey Velez were all eliminated in the semifinals.
In singles play all six Golden Tigers—Josue Tomas, David Tomas, de LaRosa, Duncan, Strickland and Logan Marshall—were also knocked out in the semifinal rounds.
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