Saturday, March 22, 2008

BHS tennis teams edge Manzano

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Albuquerque Both the Belen boys and girls tennis teams grabbed 3-2 wins over the Monarchs in their first match of the Valley Duals tournament at the Jerry Cline Tennis Complex. While the three wins by each squad were encouraging, the losses left the Eagles with some things to work on, and they had a few more opportunities this weekend to do that.

The wins wound up pitting the Eagle teams against Hobbs in Friday's first round, and results weren't available at News-Bulletin press time. The tournament concludes Saturday.

"Tough challenges make tough players," said BHS coach Regina Elkins. "These kinds of duals prepare us for district, and we're going to have experienced players who have been through these kinds of events."

For the Class 4A Eagle boys, all three singles players beat their 5A Monarch counterparts in straight sets. David Grega beat Phil Lopez, 6-0, 6-0; Chris Lucero, downed Cole Vertikoff, 6-1, 6-2; and Drew Sander defeated Sammy Chumpulpakdee, 6-2, 6-2.

Both BHS boys doubles teams faltered, however. The team of Taylor Williams and Konstantin Yatsenko was edged by Manzano's Craig Jones and Avery Gurule, 6-1, 7-6 (7-5). In the more perplexing loss, the hard-hitting Manzano brother duo of Sann Pham and Richard Pham beat Belen's Nick Becker and Kiko Lanear, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.

"I don't know what that was about," said Elkins of Baker and Lanear's loss after winning the first set. "That shouldn't be a loss."

There were also losses on the girls side by players who held a lead at one time. No. 1 Belen singles player Brittany Vallejos won the first set against Manzano's Tera Rivera 6-3, but then lost 6-1, 6-3.

Also, Belen eighth-grader Stephanie Sander held leads at various points of a 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 singles loss to Ashleigh Clevenger. Sander developed a blister on her hitting hand early in the match, but said she got used to it.

"It kind of affected me in the beginning," said Sander, the sister of Eagle boys sophomore Drew Sander. "I just tell myself that hopefully the next day, things will go better."

Sander was set to play in the No. 1 slot against highly regarded Hobbs on Friday, to which she said her initial reaction was "Whoa."

Rivera teamed with Clevenger in doubles last year to bring Manzano a 5A state tournament entry last year, the first for that program in about 30 years.

Monica Evan-Chavez had the lone singles win for the Lady Eagles on Thursday, beating Rebecca Schoeny, 6-1, 6-1. In doubles, BHS's Shannon Billingsley and Loretta Lawson defeated Kassie Carson and Amy Nim, 6-1, 6-4. Belen's Britney Lardner and Alishia Montoya, teaming up for the first time, breezed past the lighthearted-playing duo of Morgan Podrazo and April Semler, 6-0, 6-1.

Manzano's first-year coach , Megan Brewer, said Belen offered her teams some good opening-round competition.

"They gave us a run for our money," said Brewer. "There were a few excellent matches today."

The Eagle teams travel to Albuquerque High for a dual on Thursday, March 27.

E-mail this story Printer-friendly version