Marble Falls tennis getting ready for district tourney
CAPTION: Junior Cooper Womack is looking to continue his District 24-4A success. Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro
The Marble Falls High School tennis team will compete at the District 24-4A tournament Tuesday and Thursday, April 22 and 24, at Taylor.
Marble Falls received its seeding for each bracket.
Two-time defending district champion Cooper Womack is seeded No. 1 in boys singles while the boys doubles team of Cooper Kelley and Weston York is seeded No. 1 and the boys doubles team of Nicolas Smith and Payton Glaser is seeded No. 2.
In girls doubles, the team of Mia Hernandez and Sophia Trudeau is seeded No. 3 and the team of Chloe Taylor and Elsa Vandiford is seeded No. 4.
Marble Falls will have entries in girls singles and mixed doubles, but those Mustangs and Lady Mustangs didn’t receive a seed.
Seedings are awarded based on season records that head coaches submit before the bracket is created.
While getting seeded is great, head coach Samuel Whitley noted that doesn’t guarantee advancement to the Class 4A Region III tournament. Like in golf and track and field, how well or poorly a player or doubles team performed up to this tournament has no impact on the outcome. The district champion and the district runner-up in singles and doubles advance to regionals.
“It’s who shows up and plays,” Whitley said. “We feel very good in a lot of categories in boys singles and doubles. If you don’t show up and play, they’ll be a lot of surprises.”
He pointed to Womack as the example.
Two years ago, opponents knew of a Marble Falls freshman, who played boys singles.
“People saw him as a scrappy player,” the coach said. “He ended up winning district and going to regionals. He was good enough.”
That’s how Whitley sees the girls doubles bracket.
“If they show up to play and maybe get a break or two, maybe they beat No. 1 or No. 2,” he said. “It’s that close.”
The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs competed in a couple of tournaments April 16 to get ready for the district tournament.
Womack placed third and both doubles teams lost in the second round of their bracket at the Pflugerville tournament. But that wasn’t the benefit, Whitley said.
“We needed to see our weaknesses and be challenged, so we can really work on that,” he said. “They played well. They were able to see some things and do some things that needed to be done. We went there to see what we need to improve on to get better. We have two days of practice to get better.”
