Marble Falls tennis’ wins will lead to better district seeds
CAPTION: Boys singles player Cooper Womack is seeking his third consecutive district crown. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School tennis team still has three weeks before the District 24-4A tournament begins at Taylor High School.
Needless to say, the Mustangs and Lady Mustangs are using the remaining time to position themselves to get a good seeding for the tournament.
The program is hosting a varsity tournament Friday, April 4, at both the Marble Falls and Burnet high school courts beginning at 8 a.m.
District members Burnet, Jarrell, Salado and Taylor will be in attendance along with teams from Pflugerville and San Antonio.
Each entrant is guaranteed at least two matches. Results of the first match determines whether the entrant moves to the winners or consolation bracket. After that, it’s single elimination.
Head coach Sam Whitley said the players understand they must be consistently good at the matches leading up to the district tournament to get a better draw.
“The more you win, the higher you are,” Whitley said. “In our district tournament, we want the best to play our best. We match up the best players to the worst players (in the early rounds) based off record.”
These tournaments leading up to the district tournament also give coaches a chance to observe players from other schools.
“We also use them for scouting,” the coach said. “We’ll see some of our opponents and take mental notes on what they’re good at.”
Junior Cooper Womack is the two-time defending district champion. But in the very first tournament he competed in at Temple, he finished second. Part of the reason is because he didn’t dress warmly enough for the weather, which was about 30 degrees, and he was forced to retire.
Since then, he’s been on a tear.
“He’s been first in every tournament,” Whitley said. “He’s been playing very well. He works year around to develop his trade.”
As great as Womack is, “he’s not the only guy” the program has, Whitley said.
The boys doubles teams of Weston York and Cooper Kelley and of Nicolas Smith and Payton Glaser also are earning tournament medals.
“We’re playing extremely well,” the coach said. “We’re either winning, getting second place or consolation champion. We’re winning a lot of matches this spring with that group. We’ve won lots of matches this spring.”
On the girls side, the doubles teams of Mia Hernandez and Sophia Trudeau and of Elsa Vandiford and Chloe Taylor also are performing well.
“Mia and Sophia have been playing together for three years,” Whitley said. “They’re doing extremely well this spring. They realized they were much better together than apart.
“Elsa and Chloe asked if they could play together,” he added. “They’re new to each other and started playing together this spring. They’re starting to gel better.”
Chloe Brown is competing in girls singles. She finished as the silver medalist at the Liberty Hill Tournament March 26.
“Her game has improved,” Whitley said. “She’s making some great adjustments and did great.”
The program’s top mixed doubles team of Landon Farris and Nevaeh Nelson (Montoya) also is getting the job done, the coach said.
“They’ve played together off and on the past couple of years,” the coach said. “We think they can compete for (the) district (championship) and get to regionals.”
The district tournament is April 22 and 24.
