Cove tennis, cross country competes over weekend

By TJ MAXWELL

Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove team tennis program pushed their overall varsity record to 12-6 and 1-0 in District 8-6A with a 3-1 performance over the weekend and Tuesday’s district opener over Killeen.

After three close matches over the weekend, the Copperas Cove varsity tennis team opened up their district competition with a decisive 15-4 win over the Killeen Kangaroos on Tuesday.

Despite a 1 ½ hour delay, the Dawgs took control of the match in doubles’ play and never looked back.

The Dawgs took six of the seven doubles matches, including sweeping the boys’ doubles and winning the mixed doubles contest and Killeen had to fight to three sets for their one win in girls’ doubles.

“After an hour an a half delay due to weather, we came out in doubles and put a stamp on the match,” said Cove head tennis coach Paul Talbett. “We jumped out to a 6-1 lead with the only loss in doubles in a third-set tiebreaker.  This put us in great shape going into singles, only needing four matches to pull out the win.”

They got those four wins quickly in the first four matches of singles action.

“Nick Motley picked us up a quick win at no. 6 boys’ singles to give us seven wins, and then Alyssa Gonzalez (no. 1), Abby Mackwelung (no. 2), and Latoya Alokoa (no. 4) came off the court within five minutes of each other with three wins to give us the 10-1 win.  

“We played out the remaining matches to pull out the 15-4 win.”

The boys were one third-set tiebreaker away from also sweeping the singles.

The girls’ side also performed well, taking four of the six matches.

The only losses in singles for Cove also came in third set tiebreakers but Cove was also on the winning side of three tiebreakers in the match.

“Our boys came up big tonight going 8-1, and the girls went 6-3,” said Talbett. “The win tonight brings us to 12-6 on the season, and 1-0 in district play.”

Cove started the weekend with a tough 10-9 loss to Temple to fall to 9-5 on the season on Friday before defeating Taylor 11-6 and Brownwood 11-8 in a quad match on Saturday to run their record to 11-6.

The Cove doubles’ teams of Noah Chapman/Jalen Nix and Ari Diaz/Noah Samarripa earned wins for the boys while Angie Gorman/Nadrena Reid and Telsa Mackwelung/Alex Peralta earned wins for the girls to help Cove take a 5-2 lead. Ethan Hernandez and Paige Purdum also won in mixed doubles for Cove.

Gavin Glick and Ben Fernandez for the boys while Gonzalez, Zamira Manuel, Alokoa and Gorman earned wins for the girls to earn the win.

Glick /Motley and Diaz/Samarripa earned doubles wins over Brownwood while the girls swept for a 5-2 lead after doubles.

Again the boys pulled out two wins and the girls earned four for the 11 points needed to secure the win.

Diaz and Fernandez earned the wins for the boys while Abby Mackwelung, Manuel Alokoa and Gorman earned wins on the girls’ side.

The Dawgs’ next district match is Friday against Harker Heights at Cove with a first serve set for 4 p.m.

The Cove cross country teams also saw action this weekend at the Hewitt Kiwanis Cross Country Meet at the Heart of Texas Soccer Complex in Waco with sophomore Madisen Honea claiming another top 10 finish to lead the Lady Dawgs.

Honea’s time of 20:08.7 earned her the 12th best time and 10th overall adjusted finish and helped the Cove girls to a fifth-place overall finish.

Celia Holmes of Live Oak Classical posted a top time of 18:10.3 to lead the way.

Cove’s Mikayla Devins ran a time of 21:30.8 to finish 28th overall while Mariyah Reynolds (32nd - 21:45.4), Juyah Robinson (33rd - 21:50.8) Olivia Rios (43rd - 23:04.3), Danielle Diaz (46th – 23:17.7) and Stefani Vassar (54th - 23:56.9) rounded out the Cove girls’ top seven finishes. Ariana Wilson (76th – 25:49.8) also competed for Cove.

Justus Honea led the boys’ team with a 41st place finish and time of 17:40.4 for a 10th-place team finish. Ray Barrios (56th – 18:31), Tristan Reno (58th - 18:36.7), Neyland Block (60th – 18:42.1), Francisco Alvarado (62nd – 18:43.2), Amari Johnson (63rd – 18:45.1) and Christopher Borego (74th – 20:40.4) rounded out the top seven runners for Cove. Isaiah Sobers (90th – 20:54.5) and Joshua Guerrerio (94th – 22:08.4) also competed for Cove.

Cove cross country returns to action Friday, Sept. 22 at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown.