Clovis, Portales tennis teams continue early success

Clovis’ boys and Portales’ girls tennis teams continued their early-season success, with the Wildcats winning the Santa Fe Quad and the Rams taking second place at the nine-team Coyote Classic in Roswell.

It looked early on like Clovis might have finished second Saturday, with the Wildcats and Santa Fe Prep splitting the six singles matches and Santa Fe Prep winning each first set in doubles. However, all three Clovis doubles teams rallied to take second sets and 10-point third-set tiebreaker contests.

“I have to give a lot of kudos to all of the boys, but it came down to doubles for us,” Clovis coach Brad Heath said. “David Heath and Colby Coiner, after dropping the first set in a tiebreaker (14-12), came back and won the second set 6-3 and the third set on a 10-7 tiebreaker. That was big.”

Sumito Richeson and Kelton Lamb lost the first set of their No. 2 doubles match 6-3, but won the second set 7-6 (7-5 tiebreaker) before claiming the third set 10-4. Brandon Heath and Grant Palla lost their opening set in No. 3 doubles 7-6 (8-6 tiebreaker), but dominated the remaining match by taking the second set 6-2 and the third 10-5.

“These guys went all day with just breakfast and snacks; we didn’t have time to break,” Coach Heath said. “They showed a lot of toughness and resilience.”

Clovis scored 9-0 wins over Capital and Santa Fe. The girls, meanwhile, went 9-0 against Capital and suffered 1-8 losses to Santa Fe and Santa Fe Prep. Heath said the girls played well, but ran into stiff competition. Freshman Brittany Albin went 4-2 on the weekend, winning all four matches in No. 6 singles and winning one of three doubles matches with partner Ryan Harmon.

In Roswell, both tournaments had nine teams. On Friday, the teams were divided into three three-team pools. The results placed them in either a first-, second- or third-place pool on Saturday.

The girls beat Espanola Valley 9-0 and Roswell 6-3 in their Friday pool, and split their matches Saturday with Robertson and El Paso Irvin. Portales lost to Robertson 8-1, with freshman Taryn Wood winning No. 5 singles, but defeated El Paso Irvin 5-0. Portales coach Ann-Marie Bucksath said Irvin wanted to get on the road and left as soon as Portales won its fifth set. Had the leads held in the four remaining matches, she said, Portales would have won 7-2.

The boys, meanwhile, were on each end of 8-1 results Friday and Saturday. They had a win over Espanola Valley and a loss to Roswell Friday. In Saturday’s second-place bracket, they finished 1-1 with a loss to Irvin and a win over Artesia. Overall, Bucksath said, Portales was awarded fifth place.

“I think Zeke Aguirre is getting his tennis legs back under him,” Bucksath said. “He’s just coming back from basketball. Brett Horton is coming along; this is his first year on our competition roster. Javier Gutierrez pretty consistent with his ground shots; he keeps opponents frustrated with his patience.”

Portales resumes its season March 20 at Lovington, while Clovis doesn’t play again until it hosts Roswell March 21.