Dawgs reload for 2015 Team Tennis season

By TJ MAXWELL

The notepads, books and lesson plans are still put away for the summer for students of Copperas Cove High School, but their athletic endeavors are well underway. The Dawg Team Tennis  program kicked off its 2015 campaign with a pair of tight wins at home over district rivals Ellison and Shoemaker.  The Dawgs, who have just four varsity returners, began their season with a 10-9 squeaker over Shoemaker before backing that up with another close win  over Ellison, 10-9, to begin the season with a 2-0 record. “Today was an interesting beginning to the Dawgs fall tennis season,” said head tennis coach Paul Talbett. “For the first time in a long  time we are beginning the season with virtually a new team. We have three girls returning with varsity experience, and one boy. We have 10 new boys and 9 new girls  vying for varsity spots.” Varsity returners Sydney Danemarks and Tessa Bliss helped set the tone for the team as the girls pulled  off the sweep in singles and oubles for nine of Cove’s 10 points in the quad match against Shoemaker.Brett Alber, the only boy with varsity experience was able to earn the Dawgs a win, along with doubles teammate Trystan Jackson, 3-6, 6-4 (10-4), over’s Shoemaker’s Santocono/White. The girls similarly won seven of their nine matches against Ellison to lead the team to victory.Cove’s Danemarks dominated her opponent, Lakara Nairn, 8-3 and Bridget Van Hecke also earned an 8-3 win over Sierra Sparacello to lead the Lady Dawgs. Varsity returner Zonya Mackwelung also secured a win 8-4 over Ellison’s Sharice Heskey. The doubles team of BJ Abraham and Jalen Nix notched a win for the Cove boys, 6-3, 6-4, over Armando Dominguez/Klein of Ellison. Abraham also earned a singles win over Dominguez, 8-2, and Jackson downed Jacob Dean, 8-4, for three of Cove’s 10 points in the win. “Our girls carried us today,” said Talbett. “Our boys stepped up and picked up three big wins against a senior-heavy Ellison Team that helped us get the win.” The inexperienced Dawgs have four seniors, eight juniors, seven sophomores, and four freshman. “We are trying to get everyone a lot of playing time this next two weeks to see who is going to be able to help us this season,” said Talbett. “We had two tough matches that went down to the wire.” Cove continued action with a trip to Shoemaker yesterday and face a pair of home matches today against Killeen beginning at 8 a.m. and against Temple beginning at 1 p.m. Full results to come in the Copperas Cove Leader-Press.