With teams traveling as far as El Paso and Amarillo, the Allen tournament hosted some of the best tennis players from around the state of Texas. Jesuit, new to this event, didn’t realize just how steep this competition was going to be. However, even without realizing just how difficult the road ahead looked, the Rangers optimistically sought the win in both the singles and doubles brackets, improving their overall rankings as individual players compete in order to be seeded higher at district, regionals, and hopefully state.
The first matches of Friday morning on March 18th were gradually put on because only eight courts were readily available for over thirty matches at each of the three tournament sites. Luckily, all three Ranger teams competing in the first round, with the exception of Campbell Frost ’16 and Hayden Kissee ’17 who received a bye for being the number one seed, got to start rather quickly, winning all of the first round matches. Then, the long wait began for the second round to start almost two hours later. Yet, the long wait turned out to be a blessing in disguise because the weather turned from cloudy to sunny and hot, making the matches quicker and everyone more alive on the court. After the sun came out, all the Rangers were called to play their second round match, with everyone besides doubles team Matthew Salazar ’16 and Ethan Kissee ’17 advancing to the third round in the winners bracket. However, their loss in the second round was commendable because Kissee and Salazar played against the number two seed in the tournament who eventually made it all the way to the finals. In the third round, Piere Craig ’16 and Hayden and Campbell easily won their matches, allowing them to advance to the semi-finals the next day. John Lindberg ’18 who plays line two singles, was forced to wait until Saturday to play his quarterfinal match because of court unavailability.
As the cold Saturday morning began on March 19th, Lindberg was forced to play very early on, seeing as his match was supposed to be on Friday. The cold weather and early time hurt John as he lost against Gardner Perotti in straight sets. Perotti is one half of the doubles team from Highland Park who managed to take a match from Campbell and Hayden Kissee during the fall, their only loss all season. Piere Craig also played in the cold morning against a top 30 tennis player in the state of Texas, losing in straight sets. Craig later went on to say “I think playing such a good player will help me become more prepared for regionals and give me better experience.” Despite the rocky start, the confident doubles team of Campbell and Hayden barely squeezed out a win against a formidable team from Amarillo, clutching victory in the third set 7-6 (7), advancing to the finals. In the last round, Frost and Kissee played against the team from El Paso Coronado who beat the number two doubles team of Salazar and Kissee. But, unsurprisingly, Hayden and Campbell came out victorious to win their fourth straight tournament in a row! After the match, Campbell commented on his performance, noting how “we had to actually up our game and play a lot better than usual for that last match, which was how we were able to win so quickly against such a good team.”
After next week, the ultimate tournament begins on the road to state, starting with districts. Here the top 6 players will play for spots in order to qualify for state against other teams from around the Jesuit area. Then, if they manage to advance to the finals, they receive a spot in regionals. For the past two years, Jesuit has managed to have everyone qualify for regionals, with a team better than ever, this will hopefully not be a problem for the Jesuit Ranger tennis team.
