TEN: No. 13 Center captures Regional title
along with Head Coach Leon Dykes and the Regional Championship
trophy they received last weekend in Longview. Center will participate
in the Team Tennis State Tournament this weekend in the San Marcos
area. (Photo Submitted by Leon Dykes)
For the fifth time in six years, the Center High School tennis team will be participating in the Team Tennis State Tournament in San Marcos. The 13th-ranked Riders used a strong showing by the female players last weekend in Longview as they recorded wins over Athens, 17-2, Pleasant Grove, 17-2, and No.10-ranked Van, 10-8, to capture the Class 3A Region III title.
The achievement was sweet revenge after CHS was nosed out in 2009 after they posted a third-place finish and missed the State competition for the first time since 2004. The Riders made no doubt about it this year, coming in ahead of Van, Spring Hill and Pleasant Grove, who finished second through fourth, respectively.
Center has already clinched being one of the top 16 teams in the state by qualifying for the competition this weekend. A win in the first round on Friday will assure them a top 8 finish, while wins in the first two rounds will clinch a top 4 ranking in the state.
"The first round is critical at State because you make the top 8 if you win on Friday," said Center Head Tennis Coach Leon Dykes this week. "If you lose the first round, the best you can finish is 9th place.
"What's also great is they play out all 16 positions, so you get to play four rounds of tennis and then see where you rank at the end of the second day."
Dykes said his squad will play two rounds of play on Friday, taking to the courts at 8:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., before finishing with two rounds at the same times on Saturday. The exact location of play will be decided at a coaches' meeting Thursday night.
The Riders began competition against the best eight teams in Region III by taking a 6-0 lead over Athens in doubles' play, before cruising to the 17-2 win.
After topping Pleasant Grove in the second round, Center faced Van, a team that knocked Center out of the State shot a year ago with a 10-9 setback.
"After they beat us 10-9 last year, I really didn't know what to expect when we played them again," Dykes explained. "But I was pleasantly surprised with the way the kids came out and matched up against them.
"I felt we were peaking at the right time after finishing first at the Nacogdoches tournament and second at Spring Hill, and we had the No.1 seed going in and had split with Van this year."
Dykes said there are times during the season when either the girls or boys’ side of the squad ‘carried’ the team. At the Regional Tournament it was the Lady Rider athletes who came through with some crucial wins.
"On the girls' side, our girls went 7-2 and that was huge plus for us because our boys' doubles teams got swept," the coach explained. "And that's just how it is sometimes. We are such a solid team this year and when one part of the team comes up short, the others respond and pick us up."
Center boys' singles winners included #2 player Dustin Windham (senior) and #6 player Wesley Howard (junior). CHS girls' singles were led by #1 Amber Noble (freshman), #2 Shelby Hudspeth (senior), #4 Erika Cordray (senior) and #6 Sara Harkness (sophomore).
Dykes said Harkness was one of the final matches and she came through with a hard-fought 10-8 victory.
In mixed doubles, Harkness and sophomore Jacy Clark won the first set and lost the second, so the tandem had to play a tie-breaker to 10 points, which they claimed the closely-fought 10-8 triumph.
"The boys had a lot of close matches, but the girls were just able to get some close wins and help us to the win," Dykes explained. "We had some great performances by all the players."