Hawk Tennis Start Spring Season Hot in the Cold
Canyon Lake’s Tennis Squad started their Spring Season on Friday and then Winter hit for their tournament this week and had their games moved up tho Jack Frost was still in attendance for the sport with wind and cold, the two entities that can make this sport tough when conducted outside.
“Yes, we had our Hawk Winter Classic on Friday and the Navarro Tournament yesterday,” Head Tennis Coach Cory Mickey said with teeth chattering. “Because of the weather forecast we moved it up a day.”
Coach Mickey continued, “Our weather was a challenge early, we had rain that morning and it delayed us by 2 hours, but once it cleared out, the weather was great and the Hawk Classic went great.”
This Tourney was attended by Davenport, Navarro, and Burnet with Host Canyon Lake handing out the umbrella’s.
HAWK WINTER CLASSIC
Sophomores Tanner Adams & Travis Parma won the Championship by a score of 8-4 vs. Navarro.
Another Sophomore tandem, Frasier McNew & Mason Bowlin won Consolation vs. their teammates, Gabriel Lara & Colby Jackson, 8-6.
Zachary Elson won 3rd place in boys singles against Burnet.
In the Girls Doubles, Haley Gallagher & Kyleigh Miller played for 3rd but lost to Davenport, 8-4.
Burnet won the Girls Singles and Navarro won Boys Singles.
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NAVARRO TOURNEY
“Weather was cold, damp and windy, conditions for tennis were terrible but our team gutted it out and played hard,” Coach Mickey recalled. “We had to keep warm and run and stretch well prior to taking the court….so we didn’t have any injuries or simply take the court conditions and get to a slow start.”
Tennis and Soccer can be brutal sports during this time of the year as weather is not a given for having ideal conditions.
“I was very proud of our team,” Mickey stated. “Nine of my 10 players came home with metals! Best results of any tournament ever.”
What had been usual results were blown away with this early start to the season.
“In the past couple of years, we were happy when one or two won a medal…but yesterday we had 9,” Coach said excitedly. “They were all either a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd…every player won their first round match and went into the winner’s bra ket. No players played in consolation.”
Boys Singles…Gabriel Lara, 12, and Colby Jackson, 10, represented us. Gabe won first round 8-4 and Colby won 8-1 to move into the winners bracket. Gabriel was beaten by a very sold player from Marion 8-4 in the quarter finals. Colby moved on to the semis and got beat by a the eventual runner up from Randolph 8-6. Colby ended up playing the Marion player who beat Gabriel to play for 3rd place. It was a long, hard fought match by two players were tired and cold. Colby outlasted him to win 8-6.
Boys doubles…Travis Parma and Tanner Adams both sophomores, coming off thier Hawk Winter Classic win, took the title here also for their 2nd tournament win in a row. In the finals, they played a team from Navarro and took them down without much drama 8-4. Both these guys well all day, their ground strokes are much improved and very solid, their serving is getting better and more consistent and these two guys communicate very well on the court. This appears to be a doubles tandem I will be taking to our district tourney in April.
Mixed Doubles…Kyleigh Miller, 11, and Zachary Elson, 11, paired up to represent us in Mixed doubles…this was their first time playing together and they did very well. They beat Smithville in round 1 to enter the winners bracket 8-4. They eventually moved on to the semis to play Randolph, and won 8-5. This put them in the finals versus a very good Navarro team who had their top boy playing in Mixed doubles for this tournament. Navarro wins 8-4 in the final, with our team earning 2nd place silver metals. Mixed doubles can be a challenge especially for the girl player who typically isn’t competing with a guy on the other side. Kyleigh handled this challenge well, returned serve well and had a lot of great put away volleys at the net. Zach carried the team from the baseline and held his serve for most of the day.
Haley Gallagher beats team mate Ella Moore for 3rd Place girls singles 8-6
Gweneth McCutchen and Harley Jackson win 3rd place girls doubles.
In JV, San Marcos Tourney from Tuesday…Emily Wheat/Joey Royer won consolation 8-6 in their consolation final.