It’s been a magical season for the Canyon Eagles tennis team as they made the trip to the UIL Class 4A state tournament for the first time since 2018.
After pulling off a 10-0 win over Texarkana Pleasant Grove in the semifinals on Wednesday, the Eagles faced off against the top team in the state during Thursday’s championship.
The matchup against Wimberley, on paper, was razor tight as the squads UTR ratings showed them competitively close. However, Thursday evenings ending wasn’t what the Eagles wanted as they fell, 10-5, at the Hurd Tennis Center on the campus of Baylor University in Waco.
Despite coming into the match on a 24-game winning streak, the Eagles knew this wouldn’t be easy. The Texans had won two titles in the last four years and lost in the semifinals last year to eventual champion Randall.
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“Their seniors and juniors had been in this spot multiple times,” Canyon head coach David DeLeon said. “I knew their experience would be a factor and we knew our lower half would need to pull us through.”
Canyon picked up an early win in mixed doubles as Lawson Posey and Liliana Veneklasen continued their dominance with a 6-1, 6-4 win. Straight set wins for Wimberley at number three boys’ doubles and number one and two girls’ doubles left the Eagles needing to close the gap.
The boys number one doubles contest was a dream matchup as Cooper Richardson and Bradley Enriquez, both silver medalists last year in spring tennis, took on Branton Kirchner and Marcus Gonzales, who won boys doubles last year. In a tightly fought contest, the Texans duo nailed down some important points and picked up a straight set, 6-3, 6-4, win. That loss left the Eagles down 4-1 with two matches left.
In number two boys’ doubles, Kale Morton and Samuel Chettinger, were in a dog fight with Logan Carpenter and Kevin Alvarado. The netters split sets with Wimberley taking the first set, 6-3, before Canyon rallied to win the second set, 6-4. That set up a nail biting super set tie break that went back forth. Morton and Chettinger fought off three match points before the Texans duo won the fourth and came out on top, 11-9.
Fortunately for Canyon, Hadlee House and Addie Johnson, kept the Eagles hopes alive by pulling out a split set, super tiebreak win at number three girls doubles, 2-6, 6-1, (4). That victory left Canyon trailing 5-2 after the doubles portion of play.
DeLeon noted his team had really good experience rallying from a 5-2 deficit.
“I knew there were eight singles matches out there for us to win,” DeLeon said. “Some of them were coin tosses and some we were the underdog but we still felt it was possible we could rally for the win”.
Any hopes the Eagles had of staging a comeback ended quickly as the Texans picked up straight set wins at number two, three, four and five girls singles and at number two boys singles to wrap up a third title in five years for Wimberley.
The highlight in singles play was the brother-sister combination of Carter and Olivia Neighbors and Chettinger. Olivia grabbed a convincing 6-2, 6-0 win at number six girls’ singles, Carter won a crazy split set victory that he gutted out with a 16-14 super tie break win at number four boys’ singles and Chettinger avenged his doubles loss with a singles victory at the boys’ number six spot.
“The better team won the match”, DeLeon said. “There’s no shame in losing, you just respect the game and respect your opponent and live with the results. Our goal all season was to compete for a state title and let the chips fall as they may. I’m just so proud of this group. It took a lot of hard work. We’ve been at it for five years with some of these kids. They do things the right way and I could talk for hours on what made this team special.”
Note
On Monday afternoon, the bus carrying the Canyon Eagles netters to Waco, had mechanical issues in Fort Worth. Coach DeLeon reached out to Fort Worth North Side tennis coach Jose Lopez, who he had known through coaching, for some assistance. Lopez, an alum of West Texas A&M, not only received permission from the Fort Worth ISD to allow Canyon to use a bus to complete the trip but he drove the players the rest of the way to ensure they arrived safely and on time.