Dawg Tennis gets good prep in warm-up against Pflugerville

By TJ MAXWELL

Cove Leader-Press

 

PFLUGERVILLE - Cove head coach Paul Talbett wanted a test for his Copperas Cove tennis team before next week’s area playoffs begin.

 

He got just that in a 10-9 close loss to Pflugerville on Saturday.

 

“Going into the match we knew it was going to be a fight until the end,” he said. “Pflugerville has one of the top boys teams in the area, which is why I wanted to play them before we enter the playoffs.

 

“This was the type of match I wanted to get as we get ready to go into the playoffs. During the last six singles, there was a ton of pressure on almost every point was played right down to match point. These are the kind of matches we need to be playing - matches with lots of pressure and a lot riding on them.”

 

The Dawgs came out of doubles with a slim 4-3 lead, thanks to a sweep on the girl’s side.

 

Tessa Bliss and Zonya Mackwelung had to battle to a tiebreaker in the no. 1 spot to get the win but survived 4-6, 7-6(3) (13-11). Latoya Alokoa and Abby Mackwelung won 7-6(3), 6-3 and Alyssa Gonzales/Zamira Manuel won 6-2, 6-3.

 

Dalton Heil and Sami Turner also earned a win in mixed doubles 6-3, 6-4.

 

“We went into doubles and swept the girls and took the mixed to take an earlier 4-3 lead,” said Talbett.

 

The girls’ singles won four of six matches with the two losses going to third-set tiebreakers.

 

Bliss took a 6-4 lead after set one but fell 6-0 in the second and eventually fell 10-8 in the breaker.

 

Alokoa lost a close first set 7-6(10) before sweeping the second set 6-0 to set up the tiebreaker where she fell 10-3.

 

Both Mackwelungs, along with Turner and Gonzales, had straight-set victories.

 

Trystan Jackson earned the only win in boy’s singles with a third-set tiebreaker. He lost the first set 6-3 before rallying to take set two 6-2 and the breaker (10-5).

 

“Going into singles we were hoping to take one, maybe two in boys’ singles,” said Talbett. But, we knew we had to sweep or come close to a sweep in girls singles. Everything was coming off as expected. Pflugerville was taking the boys’ matches, and we were pulling the girls. We took a big loss in a third-set tiebreaker at no. 3 girls singles to make it where we had to win a boys match, and Trystan Jackson came through at no. 5 boys’ singles. Sitting tied at 8-8 we lost no. 2 girls’ singles in another tiebreaker to go down 9-8. Immediately after, we picked up our no. 4 girls’ singles to make it 9-9. It came down to the last match on the court, which we lost 7-5, 5-0 retired.”