Tennis teams start

LOVINGTON — The Portales and Clovis tennis teams expected to spend Friday and Saturday facing off in the Lovington Remix Tournament.

But inclement weather offered its own remix, and the tournament organizers decided to try to squeeze all of the matches into Friday.

The Portales girls took first in the tournament, while Portales’ girls finished fourth. In boys action, Clovis was second behind tournament host Lovington, while a shorthanded Ram boys team did well but lost most matches due to default losses.

“I was very happy with everybody who played for our first time,” said Clovis boys coach Brad Heath. “It was a good way to start the season.”

All duals were comprised of two singles matches and two doubles matches, with 2-2 ties settled by games won overall.

The boys went 3-1 on the day, beating Artesia, Portales and Denver City and falling 4-0 to Lovington. Heath said a positive was to come out of such a busy day without anybody suffering injuries. Clovis technically tied Denver City at two wins apiece, and the tiebreaker came to a 37-32 games advantage for the Wildcats.

“It was a good day for the girls,” Portales coach Ann-Marie Bucksath said. “They all mixed up and played singles or doubles with different partners most matches. With the boys, we only had five because I’ve still got a few playing basketball and we had to default some matches. They did really well. I can’t say anything bad about any of them. They all played good tennis for their first match of the year.”

Clovis girls coach Jeannette Albin was pleased with the fourth-place finish.

“We took six players, three sophomores returning from last year, and three new first-time players,” Albin said. “It was a good first day for our young team.”

Victorious in doubles matches were Ryan Harmon in a No. 1 doubles match against Denver City, Alex Gonzales and Alsaleh in a No. 2 match against Artesia, and Andrea Mendoza and Alex Gonzales in the No. 2 match against Denver City.

Portales will head to the Coyote Classic Friday and Saturday at Roswell. Clovis will host Muleshoe’s girls 3:45 p.m. Tuesday, and both teams will travel to Levelland Thursday for the South Plains Tournament.