History repeated itself Tuesday at the Bonham Middle School Tennis Center, which was just fine with Canyon.
In the Class 4A team tennis region quarterfinals, Canyon played Hereford for the third time this season after two lopsided wins in District 4-4A play. Canyon made sure that the third time wasn’t a charm for Hereford, rolling to a 10-0 victory to advance to Thursday’s region semifinals at Abilene’s Rose Park Tennis Center.
There, Canyon (24-3), ranked No. 3 in the state, will take on Wall in one region semifinal. On the other side of the bracket is a familiar foe, fellow Canyon ISD school Randall, who will take on Vernon in the day’s first semi. Randall advanced by beating Lubbock-Cooper Liberty 12-3 on Tuesday.
Before there was any chance of a CISD clash to determine the right to go to the state tournament, Canyon had to get by another area opponent in Hereford. The day started with seven doubles matches, and when Canyon swept them, that made the result seem like a formality, as Canyon only had to win three of the 12 to reach the magic number of 10 wins and clinch the match.
“Team tennis is all about the momentum in doubles and if you can carry that it makes your job a lot easier,” Canyon coach David DeLeon said. “(Hereford) battled hard today. We knew that they would come out and make us earn it and they did just that. We were very fortunate but also played tough.”
Four of the seven doubles matches went to second set tiebreakers. Under the team format, if the teams split the two sets, a tiebreaker will determine the winner.
On the boys side, Samuel Chettinger and Kale Morton combined to beat Lucio Hernandez and Zamiha Escobedo 6-0, 2-6 (7) and Jack Morton and James Reagan defeated Devin Wells and Mario Yanez 6-1, 1-6 (3) in a pair of severe split set tiebreaker victories.
The girls doubles side was at least as competitive. Canyon’s Hannah Terry and Hadley House survived Canyon’s Macy Betzen and Natalie Hernandez in the No. 1 match 5-7, 6-4 (10-5) and Addie Johnson and Maeleigh Self beat Nataly Cervantes and Nayeli Villarreal 7-6 (4), 2-6 (10-5).
“I think our experience and mental fortitude helped propel us into that 7-0 lead,” DeLeon said. “At that point it’s just about over. We were waiting for matches to come off at the end so it was a little anticlimactic. We practice being tough in those moments but Hereford’s just as tough. In two of those boys doubles it really could have gone either way.”
For as close as the doubles matches were, Canyon ended it early with three straight set wins in singles.
On the boys side, Canyon’s Lawson Posey beat Wells 6-3, 6-1 in the No. 4 match. For the girls, No. 3 Olivia Neighbors beat Cervantes 6-1, 6-0 and No. 4 Johnson beat Villarreal 6-3, 6-0.
When those matches were complete, it made the others in progress unnecessary and the match was halted with Canyon having gotten to 10 wins.
It marked Canyon’s third win over Hereford this year. In district play, Canyon defeated Hereford 14-5 and 19-0.
“Against Hereford the last five years we’ve been the favorite, but that doesn’t effect how hard we play,” DeLeon said. “We knew coming into today that no one wants to be us more than Hereford, except maybe Randall. It’s a rivalry that goes back to the 11 years I’ve been coaching at Canyon. We have a goal and they’re in our way and we have to take care of business.”
Hereford entered the match as the No. 8 team in the state, which shows how good Canyon is. The difference might have been Canyon’s overall depth in the lineup.
“They’ve had a lot of experience on the boys side with a lot of those kids being seniors,” said Hereford coach Aaron Mendoza of Canyon. “I think that’s where they kind of got us today. We did make them work for it and competed and that’s all I ask of my kids. I think we met those expectations but Canyon came out on the right side of this.”
It seems the only time Canyon hasn’t come out on the right side of things this season has been against Randall. That was the only school to beat Canyon in district play, and Randall did it twice.
Odds are that Canyon will have to get past Randall to make it to state, but can’t afford to look past Wall.
“It’s hard with all due respect to Wall because if we go in and play our best we should win,” DeLeon said. “The thing we stress these next two days is we can’t play Friday if we don’t win Thursday. It’s all about winning the day.”
Photo gallery by Joe Garcia III:
