The tennis program recently competed at the district tournament, crowning junior Ben Smoot as men’s singles champion, seniors Brooke O’Brien and Luvenia Wallace as women’s doubles champions. Seniors Ava Cockrell and Julianne Chamberlain and sophomore Izzy Sikora advanced to Region as well.
The athletes will compete in the Region II tournament, which begins today on the campus of UT-Arlington. It will mark yet another year in which the program sends athletes to the Regional tournament; but the ambition of the players and coaches does not end there, even in what is widely considered the most competitive region.
“Seeing the level of competition out there, you can walk across any court, in any round, in any division, and there are going to be great players,” coach John Macapaz said. “So we can’t go into it without working hard and preparing ourselves for a battle right from the very beginning. If we want to go out there and make some noise, we’re going to have to take it away from somebody. No one’s going to hand it to us.”
At the district tournament, some of the stiffest competition that district champions O’Brien and Wallace faced was their own teammates Cockrell and Chamberlain. The women’s doubles district final concluded with the the Kingwood Park pairs facing off, knowing that both would qualify for Region but only one could win District. The razor close match went to a third set and was reflective of the quality of both partnerships and the time they spent playing each other in practice and learning each others’ games.
“They definitely put up a good competition,” O’Brien said. “So it was cool to play against them.”
It was the first instance of Macapaz’s career that his athletes competed against each other in a district final.
“For me, it was super fulfilling knowing that our girls have worked really hard this year,” Macapaz said. “And the fact that they were able to get past all of the competition, let alone both of them making it out to Regionals was definitely a fulfilling feeling as a coach.”
All four girls are seniors. Heading into Region, they know any match could be their last.
“I just remember bursting into tears after the last point,” Wallace said. “Because I was like a lot of emotions and everything was just very overwhelming. I’m sad that this could be like my last tournament, but I’m happy with all the memories I’ve made this year.”
While Smoot has another year to compete, his performances have shown that he is ready to make a run now. Smoot’s district victory came against Lufkin’s standout player, executing the gameplan to perfection and making relatively easy work of a legitimate challenge.
“Ben made a great run , he played a really, really talented boy from Lufkin that could have given him a very difficult time if he didn’t make good decisions and play with some maturity out there,” Macapaz said. “So the fact that he wins that match with the gameplan and he was able to stick it through, let alone dominate the game, I mean, it was a great performance.”
Macapaz said that the key to victory for his athletes is belief.
“At the end of the day, if you don’t believe that you can win, you’re not going to be successful,” Macapaz said. “So they’ve got to have mental toughness to say, I’m going to go out and do whatever it takes to be a winner on this court, because the level of talent out there is too good for us to take it for granted.”
