Marble Falls team tennis loses to La Vernia

CAPTION: The seniors of the Marble Falls High School tennis program are Chloe Taylor (left), Cooper Womack, Payton Glaser, Adam Beaston, Glenn Banton, Nicolas Smith, Jonathan Leaflet, Chloe Brown, Sophia Trudeau and Nevaeh Nelson (Montoya). Staff photo by Jennifer Fierro

The Marble Falls High School team tennis squad lost to La Vernia 6-10 Oct. 9 in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs.

The Mustangs and Lady Mustangs end their season as the District 24-4A runners-up and bi-district champions.

“We played well,” head coach Sam Whitley said. “We were very comparable teams. Talking to their coach (Chris Taber) during the match, actually fairly early on, he said that’s the best they have played in a very long time and they played a lot of matches well. I think we did about as good as we could do.”

After the doubles matches concluded, Marble Falls led 4-3. Cooper Womack and Cooper Kelley and Sophia Trudeau and Nevaeh Nelson (Montoya) at No. 1 boys and girls doubles, Sean Smith and Glenn Banton and Chloe Taylor and Elsa Vandiford at No. 3 boys and girls doubles all won.

“We came out where we wanted to be at after doubles,” Whitley said. “(Our No. 3 doubles) both of them won tiebreakers. And so we came out where we wanted to be at.”

But La Vernia won three boys singles and four girls singles matches to take the head to head. Womack and Kelley were the only singles winners. Three singles matches were still being played when La Vernia won the 10th match to take the head-to-head victory.

“I thought that the matches were going to be even for the most part,” the coach said. “There were a few matches that were won or lost pretty quick. But for most of the time, we had matches that lasted an hour, an hour and a half. We had six set tiebreakers, and we won half of them. They won the other half. And again, that’s probably what made the difference right there. We had a couple of second set tiebreakers that we end up losing as well, but it was evenly matched.”  

If there was one stat that caught his eye, it was the tiebreakers.

“Those tiebreakers are extremely important matches, especially when you’re playing a team that’s very comparable to you,” he said. “That’s pretty much in all honesty where the match is going to be won or lost at because, like I said, there are a few matches out there that we win 6-2, 6-3, there’s a few matches that they win 6-1, 6-2, 6-3. But those tiebreakers are the ones that you’ve got to find a way to pull out, because those are the ones that you had a chance to win and you failed at it.”  

As he reflected on the season, Whitley said his players competed at their highest levels.

“We played as well as we could play, we did not overachieve,” he said. “We did not really underachieve. We beat the teams that we should have beat. We didn’t lose to anybody that we shouldn’t have lost to. The teams that beat us were (Leander) Glenn, (Little River) Academy, Mason and La Vernia. We won the rest of our matches, we beat the teams we should beat. I’m very proud of the kids on what they were able to accomplish. This senior class has set a good foundation for us to continue to build on.”