With buses of kids hungry for victory flowing into the high school parking lot, the Jesuit Tennis team realized the Coppell Invitational would be a hard fought two days. Except for the past year, Jesuit has failed to acquire the coveted first place trophy; however, with a team stronger than ever, the players and coaches were confident in being able to come out on top.
At the end of the first day, the top two singles players, John Lindberg ’18 and Pierre Craig ’16, had won all of their matches. While in doubles, powerhouse team Campbell Frost ’16 and Hayden Kissee ’17 easily cruised through the first three rounds, but, as the bus drove up to Coppell’s parking lot on Saturday, dark clouds looming in the sky foreshadowed a brisk rain that would put a halt to the competition. Sure enough, as the first matches were beginning to start, rain poured from the sky. Though distraught, the unyielding Jesuit Ranger team endured a three-hour delay before matches commenced. As the sun finally started to shine through the tapering clouds, the tennis team managed to take the tournament by storm, with both Craig and the doubles team of Kissee and Frost capturing victories in the semifinals. After a brutal three-set match, Lindberg fell to one of Coppell’s top players in three sets, 6-7, 6-4, 5-10.
After a short break, the Rangers went back out to play the final matches of the day. After an amazing performance from Frost and Kissee, this undefeated doubles team once again captured a victory, winning in a tight three setter 4-6,6-4,10-6, claiming their second Jesuit tournament in a row. Frost went on to state, and commented on his performance in the last few matches, noting, “I feel like the last two tournaments we’ve been down the first set in each final, but we manage to play hard and pull through. This is the best chance we have to win state, we are both at the top of our games.” Likewise,  Craig managed to easily win 8-3 in the finals after a grueling three-hour match. With Jesuit’s winless streak completely vanished from the Coppell tournament records, the team looks forward to the Westwood Invitational at the end of February.
Coach McDaniel further explained, “It was a real tough tournament. It was the first time we had someone repeat in doubles and the first time we had someone win in doubles and [we’re] happy to be in this tournament. And now we dominate it, it’s a significant accomplishment.” Let’s hope that the team can carry the momentum gained from the Coppell tournament into the Westwood Invitational.
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