Marble Falls tennis loses to Mason, prepares for Burnet

CAPTION: Marble Falls’ Sophia Trudeau and her teammates are traveling to face Burnet in team tennis matches that will decide which squad is the second seed in the District 19-4A tournament. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School team tennis squad lost to Mason 18-1 Sept. 12 in a non-district matchup.

The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs now focus their attention on a road trip to Burnet at 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21. The two squads are playing for the second seed in District 19-4A tournament that starts Sept. 28. The second seed will host the third seed. So the two teams are basically competing for the right to host the other during the first round the tournament.

While Marble Falls head coach Sam Whitley acknowledged the Burnet County rivalry, he said it’s not the focus.

“We’re going to go into the match as if it’s just another match,” he said. “it should be a fairly even match. Last year they beat us 8-11. We had three people on the court when they got to 10 (in 2022). Everybody has to come out and play the very best they can play.”

He wants his players to keep their emotions in check and not get too high to face Burnet, noting that some athletes will get psyched to play an opponent.

“And if things don’t go your way, you get too low,” he said. “And we have to go back and play Burnet again. We’re trying to get better.”

Lago Vista, which is seeded No. 1, awaits the winner of the Belton New Tech-Salado matchup. The loser of the Marble Falls-Burnet match-up will face the loser of the Lago Vista-Belton New Tech-Salado match-up for the right to enter the playoffs as the third seed.

As for the non-district match-up against Mason, Whitley said Marble Falls learned plenty. Senior Hayden Gasaway was the only Mustang to win his match. Gasaway had been sidelined while he rehabbed an injury.

“We have him playing singles,” Whitley said. “He’s obviously a good player; an all-district player, played in the No. 1 slot. It’s going to take him a little while to get back in rhythm, and he did a great job.”

Whitley noted the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs discovered plenty about themselves against Mason.

“I wanted to see how we handled adversity,” Whitley said. ” The kids continued to play and play hard. We got better from it. I saw our kids continue to serve hard and play hard. I’m extremely proud of what came from that match.”

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