Dawg Tennis falls to Belton 14-5 to close district play
Fri, 2016-10-07 05:00
News Staff
By TJ MAXWELL
Cove Leader-Press
The Dawg Tennis team dropped their final district contest to the Belton Tigers by a score of 14-5, but the score is not indicative of the competitive play.
The Dawgs (20-8 overall, 3-3 in district play) lost five of the seven doubles matches but were in nearly every match.
“It took well over two hours for doubles to be completed,” said Cove head coach Paul Talbett. “We had very tight matches, with most games coming down to deuce points, and a couple of split-set matches. We also had three very tight two-set matches that had tiebreakers in at least one of the two sets - failing to capitalize on two third-set tie breaks and not get into a third set by losing a second set tie break. We were down 2-5 coming out of doubles and, if one or two points go the other way, and we could have easily have been up 5-2 after doubles.”
The Cove girls’ duo of Latoya Alokoa and Abby Mackwelung earned a straight-set victory in a tight one over Belton’s Kenzie Daniell and Eric McGoldrick 6-4, 7-6(2).
Alyssa Gonzales and Zamira Manuel also had to battle off deuce points to win in straight sets 7-6(5), 6-3.
Tessa Bliss and Zonya Mackwelung fought back from a first-set blanking, 6-0, to force a third-set tiebreaker after winning the second 6-4. Belton’s Lizzy Nix and Brianne Dumas held off Cove 11-9 in the breaker.
On the boys’ side, Cove’s Brett Alber and Noah Chapman also fought back from a 6-0 shutout in the first set to push Belton’s Brandon Huckabee and Major Ueckert to a couple deuce points before eventually falling 7-6(2) in the second set.
Cove’s Trystan Jackson and Nick Motley forced a third-set tiebreaker in their match. After falling behind a set with a 6-3 loss, they rallied to win set two 6-4 to force the tiebreaker. Belton held on to win 10-7 in the breaker.
The Dawgs earned three more wins in singles with two coming on the boys’ side from Alber and Gavin Glick with Bliss earning the only singles win for the girls.
“Even after being in that hole after doubles we came out strong in singles, fighting in every match,” said Talbett. “We only had two singles matches that we were never really in, otherwise the singles matches were tight. We had a legitimate shot to pull out seven or eight singles matches.”
Alber had a similar scenario as his doubles match earlier. He found himself in a huge hole after dropping the first set against Belton’s Gabe Linwemann 6-0. He battled back to win the second set 6-4 and the tiebreaker 10-7 for the win.
Glick also battled back from a set down to earn the win over Belton’s JJ Seo. He lost the first set 6-4 and fought off four deuce points to win the second set 7-6(4) before outlasting Seo in the breaker 10-7.
Bliss had an easier go in her win. She downed Belton’s Nix 6-4, 6-1 to earn the win.
Alokoa and Abby Mackwelung pushed their Belton counterparts to the brink with both falling in tiebreakers.
Alokoa battled back from a 6-3 loss in set one against Belton’s Antoinette Lynne to win set two 7-5 and force the breaker. Lynne held on to win 10-7.
It was the opposite for Abby. She beat Dumas 6-3 in set one before dropping set two 6-4 to force the breaker. She again pushed Dumas until the Lady Tiger eventually won 12-10 in the tiebreak.
“We lost the match 14-5 but we lost four third-set tiebreakers and had several other tight matches,” said Talbett. “I am proud of the way we fought even up to the last match played. The last two matches played went to third-set tiebreakers, and we won the last match, even though Belton already had 10 wins. That is the kind of fight that will help us as we move into the playoffs.
“Our girls doubles stood out again last night taking two out of three matches, and the only loss was in three sets at no. 1 girls. Our boys played extremely well and we had a good shot at taking two out of three.
The Dawgs finished fourth in district play and will play at the Area tournament on Oct. 20 and 21st in Waco. Time and place has yet to be determined.