Reagan Varsity Tennis Oust Old Rivals Van de Grift

October 18, 2021

Rattlers Varsity Tennis Oust Van de Grift in Tense Thriller

Thursday October 14th, 2021 turned out to be a revenge grudge match for the Rattlers Varsity Tennis Team. They faced off against an old rival in the 6A High School playoffs. Van de Drift High School (Austin ISD) have been the proverbial “thorn in the side” for a number of years as they have knocked Reagan out of the running the previous 3 years in a row. 2021 was to be a different story. The Boys and Girls Varsity Tennis team, after advancing to the Round of 16 in the State area playoffs, stepped up to the plate and delivered.

After severe overnight rainfall across the region, getting the matches played and completed looked ominous. However, the frontal system blew through the area, and the day turned into a perfect environment for a match.

The matches were played on neutral ground at Dripping Springs HS and in usual fashion the doubles format started proceedings. Below are the Lines, Pairings and Results for the matches.

Line 1 : Boys – Kyle Totorica & Deuce Daniel (w) / Girls – Kara Greenlee & Alissa Ortiz (l)

Line 2 : Boys – Joseph Snyman & Jon Totorica (w)/ Girls – Kathy He & Melanie Villareal (l)

Line 3 : Boys – Hunter Alexander & Anish Sehgal (w)/ Girls – Emily Higgs & Paulina Razo (l)

Mixed : Mathew Kim & Darshini Mahesh (w)

The Van de Grift team showed an immense amount of grit to claw two points from the girls doubles Line 2 & 3. Both matches had tie breakers and a close third set for Line 2 that unfortunately fell the Van de Grift way. This boded well as it boosted the confidence of the girls for their singles matches later in the afternoon. The Boys doubles matches won Line 1 & 2 with strong performances, but the boys Line 3 pairing had a much tighter affair resulting in the teams splitting sets and the Reagan boys proving victorious in the deciding 10 point tie breaker.

The mixed doubles match provide pivotal for our overall result, and with the scoreline landing 7-6, 6-7 a thrilling 10 point tie breaker was on the cards. They did not disappoint and Mathew and Darshini played liked their lives depended on it to clinch the win in the end. Mathew was like a net ninja and proved to be impossible to pass, while Darshini’s utter dominance of the long cross court rallies wore their opponents down for Mathew to pounce at every opportunity.

After the Doubles the match score was tipped in our favor at 4-3.

The singles Lines, Players and results played out below as follows:

Line 1 : Girls – Melanie Villareal (l) / Boys  – Kyle Totorica (w)

Line 2 : Girls – Alissa Ortiz (l) / Boys  – Jon Totorica (w)

Line 3 : Girls – Kathy He (l) / Boys – Deuce Daniel (w)

Line 4: Girls – Kara Greenlee (l) / Boys – Joseph Snyman (w)

Line 5 : Girls – Emily Higgs (w) / Boys  – Hunter Alexander (w)

Line 6 : Girls – Italia Valencia (dnf) / Boys – Anish Sehgal (dnf)

Many matches hung in the balance throughout the singles play. Boys Line 2 & 3 made short work of their opponents and put the first points on the board for Reagan. Again the strong Van de Grift Line 1 & 2 girls proved to strong an opponent and this put two points in the Van de Grift teams favor. Scores were sitting at 6-5 by this stage. Boys Line 4 and 1 came to the party and also added their victories to continue the Reagan slide towards victory. Line 4 Girls then bounced a point back to Van de Grift leaving the tally at 8-6, again in Reagans favor.

Our Line 3 Girls match took every ounce of grit from Kathy He to battle a strong opponent. The match ended splitting sets with another 10 point tie breaker to give the teams something to cheer and yell for. There was no shortage of support for both sides and sadly after battling cramp, fatigue and playing some astounding tennis, Kathy succumbed in the end. Despite the loss, the team felt a surge of energy from Kathy’s performance. While all the hype was focused on the tie breaker, Emily Higgs quietly, and with ruthless efficiency, went about her business securing Reagan another point with an outstanding 6-0, 6-2 win over her opponent.

The score was teetering with Reagan needing just a single point to win  – 9-7.

This left only three matches on court. Line 6 Boys and Girls and Line 5 Boys. Who was going to step up to the plate and secure victory for the Rattlers? The matches were poised and tense and at one point, Italia was up against her opponent in the first set 5-2, setting a blistering pace for the winning point. Hunter, also playing with a zest anfd vigor never seen before,  won the first set and then narrowly lost the second set of his match in a 7 point tie breaker. On came Coach Daniel to hand out some pointers and to calm the nerves.

Meanwhile, Anish, who was battling hard adjacent to Hunter, was putting up a valiant fight hitting some excellent groundstrokes deep into the opponents court. Concentration was probably impossible with all the cheering and yelling close at hand. Who was it going to be to clinch the winning point?

Eventually, after a hard fought battle of cat and mouse around the court, it was Hunter who forced too many unforced errors out of his opponent, seized the moment of glory for the winning point to secure the overall victory for Reagan.

All players were called to shake hands and Reagan proved to be the ultimate winner with 10 points to Van de Grift’s 7.

This means that the Rattlers Varsity team pushed on through to the Quarterfinals of the State Regional Competition. Congrats to all Reagan players and non-players. The support and energy exhibited by all, made the victory that extra bit special. We prevailed against the Van de Grift Vipers, until next year, we get to Rattle our tails in victory.

The Reagan Rattlers face off against West Lake HS at Dripping Springs on October 19th at 12noon. Good Luck to our team and play hard.

Reagan Varsity Tennis Victorious against Van de Grift on October 14th 2021 (score 10-7)

YOU MISS 100% OF THE OPPORTUNITIES YOU DO NOT TAKE. – STRIKE EM!!!!!