The Española Valley High School girls tennis team lost a close battle to Alamogordo High School, 5-4, May 4, at the Sierra Vista West Tennis Complex in Albuquerque, in the first round of the Class 5A tennis state championships.
The Lady Sundevils came into the tournament as the No. 9 seed, while the Lady Tigers were ranked eighth.
As the seedings suggested, nearly all of the matches were close, competitive and hard-fought. The two teams split the singles portion of the match, 3-3.
The victorious Española tennis players were Jaden Archuleta, 3-6, 6-3 and 7-5, over Hailey Moehlmann; Dulce Maldonado, 7-6 and 6-1, over Abby Sherwood; and Abigail Rodarte, 6-2 and 6-2, over Kiah Westover.
To escape the singles with the overall score tied, heading into doubles, Archuleta had to conduct a comeback against Moehlmann in the final singles match that had not concluded.
She built a 6-5 game lead in the third set, then dominated the final game to get the win with all of her coaches and teammates cheering her on outside the tennis court fence.
“It was just nervousness at first,” Archuleta said about playing in the state tournament. “I started to calm down and started listening to what the coaches were telling me and it really helped me make it through.”
Rodarte also said the atmosphere took a few moments to adjust to.
“I was nervous at first, but once I started going it just felt like any other match,” she said. “It was nerve-racking, but you just have to calm down and play.”
Alamogordo’s Mackensie Sherwood defeated Izabel Sena, 6-3 and 6-0; Cammie Wallace defeated Ariana Estrada, 7-5 and 6-0; and Melanie Jun defeated Española’s No. 1, Kaylinn Martinez, 6-1 and 6-3.
Despite the loss, Lady Sundevils’ head coach Nancy Suazo said Martinez felt good about the effort she put forth.
“Kaylinn came off the court and said, ‘That girl is good, I’m going to play like her next year,’” Suazo said. “It’s always good for them to get these experiences to compete and grow.”
Suazo was enthusiastic about her team’s play in singles and hoped the momentum they built would carry over to doubles.
“We just have to compete, that’s the bottom line,” she said. “The biggest thing is for them to leave it all out there, Jayden had a phenomenal comeback — and hopefully that sets the precedence for the doubles, it’s a good win to hang our hat on to try to carry the momentum.”
Unfortunately for Española, the Lady Tigers won two of the three doubles matches to earn the victory and the right to stay in Albuquerque to move on and face the No. 1 seed, Farmington High School, later that night.
Martinez and Maldonado lost to Jun and Sherwood, 6-4 and 6-0; Estrada and Rodarte lost to Sherwood and Westover, 6-2 and 6-2; but, Sena and Archuleta won the No. 2 doubles match, 6-2 and 6-2, over Moehlmann and Wallace.
Suazo was disappointed the girls couldn’t advance and gain the experience of playing under the lights at the Jerry Cline Tennis Facility, but she also could not deny their will to compete.
“We just came up a little short,” Suazo said. “We needed two out of those three doubles matches and just didn’t get it. It was a good season — and the girls competed — and they’ll regroup and come back stronger next year.”
Española will return next year, all six of the players that competed in the state tournament, plus Sophia Sena, Izabel Sena’s younger sister, who filled in the rotation often, throughout the season.