Canadian Wildcat football, Bushland volleyball and the Nazareth Swiftettes in basketball are among the elite of program here in the Texas Panhandle.
It’s time to add another team to that group as the Randall Raider tennis team won their third UIL Class 4A state team tennis championship in five years Thursday at the Northside Tennis Center in San Antonio.
Randall, making a fourth appearance at state in the last five years, captured that unprecedented third title Thursday morning with a hard fought 10-7 win over top ranked Corpus Christi Tuloso-Midway.Adding this victory to their state titles in 2022 and 2024 along with four individual golds in the spring has perched the Raider netters at the top of area programs.
“We knew coming into this year we would be competitive,” Randall head coach Darby Norman said. “I never imagined anything like this. Our kids, from the very first practice, believed they could do this and our senior leadership wanted to lead us to be as successful as we could be”.
Ranked No. 2 in the state most of the year, the Raiders cruised to the state finals, outside of a hard-fought regional title match against rival Canyon, beating the Eagles 10-8. In fact, Norman’s squad was undefeated at 33-0 coming in to the state title match with only seven of those wins on home court.
Thursday morning, Randall again opened up a large lead over the higher seeded Warriors, notching a 5-2 lead after doubles.
Four of the seven matches split sets with the black and gold netters taking three of the four split set matches. Both girls doubles matches were close with the number one team of Lily Harding and Juliana Reilly getting a 6-1, 6-7, (9) victory while the number two squad of Autumn Bell and Chloe Dyess rallied for a 6-4, 1-6, (7) win to help build that large lead.
However, it was a win in mixed doubles that really set the tone for Norman’s squad. Caleb Dishong and Fallon Christie were considered long shots to win versus the Warriors Gilberto Rodriguez and Ruby Lopez but that pair rose to the occasion to notch a straight set victory, 6-3, 6-3.
“Are team was looked at as considerable underdogs,” Norman said. “However, they did everything we asked them to do and that was a big win to get everything kick started. Several of our kids mentioned looking at that score and thinking if mixed could get that win then I can do it to”.
As action turned to singles play, Jensen Betzen, voted the boys MVP of the state tournament, added to the lead with a quick 6-2, 6-2 victory in number one singles. Both number six players, Ethan Rodriguez on the boys side and Juliana Reilly on the girls side notched split set victories to counter three Tuloso-Midway wins and gave Randall an 8-5 advantage.
After Gavin Yarber’s back and forth split set victory over Gabriel Gonzales for Tuloso-Midway in boys number two singles, 6-2, 2-6, (12), Randal just needed one more victory for a state title.
However, the Warriors refused to go away. Wins at number two and three girls singles cut the lead to 9-7 and danger was looming. Girls state MVP Lily Harding found herself in a battle with Jillian Garcia. Harding took the first set 7-5 and was up 5-4 before Garcia broke her serve to tie things at five all in the second set.
On the boys side, Marcos Hernandez and Preston Land had both split sets at four and five singles with Randall just needing one of the three to take gold.
The Warriors Garcia had just went up 6-5 in the second set on Harding while Land found himself down 7-5 in the tiebreak when Hernandez delivered the knockout punch for the Raiders netters taking a 6-3, 2-6, (4) win to garner another state plaque for Randall.
“That was what I wanted,” Norman said about Harding and Hernandez still on the court. “They are both seniors who know that feeling of pressure and they would need to find a way to come through and get a victory. To Marcos’ credit, he found a way. He played amazing tennis today”.
Norman has built quite the machine at Randall but don’t expect the Raiders netters to rest on their laurels. With only three seniors on the squad, don’t be surprised if the veteran coach and his squad are back in the same position next year looking to add more hardware to the school’s trophy case.
