Marble Falls tennis has hot start to the season

EDITOR’S NOTE: Jarrell contacted Marble Falls to forfeit the match scheduled for Aug. 14.

CAPTION: Lady Mustangs Chloe Taylor (left) and Mia Hernandez add more wins to the Marble Falls total against Taylor. Courtesy photo

The Marble Falls High School team tennis team is 3-0 after beating Lampasas Aug. 8, Taylor Aug. 7 and Copperas Cove Aug. 5.

The Mustangs are headed to Leander Glenn Monday, Aug. 11, for matches that begin at 3 p.m. before turning their attention to the start of District 25-4A. Jarrell forfeited the head-to-head matchup against Marble Falls scheduled for Aug. 14.

In team tennis, 19 matches are played including a mixed doubles, three boys doubles and three girls doubles. The rest are singles matches. The team that wins 10 matches is declared the winner in the head-to-head matchup in the district standings.

Meanwhile, the first week of play couldn’t have gone any better for Marble Falls as the players steamrolled Copperas Cove 15-4 and Taylor 18-1.

But Lampasas and Marble Falls battled to the end with senior Sophia Trudeau at No. 2 girls singles and Logan Hargraves at No. 6 boys singles both winning their matches to secure the needed 10 victories for the team win. Trudeau was the only Lady Mustang to win her singles match.

“All 10 matches are important,” head coach Samuel Whitley said. “Every match you win is important. Logan was the deciding match.”

While fans are excited about a 3-0 start, and Whitley is, too, he noted two Lady Mustangs and two Mustangs, who are veterans, weren’t in the lineup.

Marble Falls still won. That illustrates another important point for Whitley.

He pointed out there’s not much of a gap between his fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth players on the tennis ladder.

“We had some girls step in there,” he said. “Logan Hargraves stepped in and won the match. They’re competing for positions. We have two fairly young boys who’ll push for fourth, fifth and sixth. We have two boys, possibly three, who’ll push for the fourth, fifth and sixth positions. Same thing with the girls.”

With more than 30 players competing in the program, Whitley has the depth to put the top seven Mustangs and Lady Mustangs on courts each week.

“We’ll be doing challenge matches,” he said. “If you’re in the top seven, you’re going to be playing. It’s a great thing to have, it’s a great problem to have.”

Whitley noted his returners, who have been apart of team tennis squads that have finished as the district runners-up the last two years, want to be the district champions this season.

“We have to get more wins on the girls side if we want to be the district champions this year,” he said.

After the first week in the district standings, Salado defeated Lago Vista and Little River Academy beat Belton New Tech, while Liberty Hill Legacy Ranch forfeited to Cameron Yoe.

CAPTION: Another set of Mustangs — Cooper Kelley (left) and Payton Glaser — earn wins against Taylor. Courtesy photo