The Española Valley High School girls tennis team has become hot at the right time of the season.
They won their fourth consecutive duel-match by defeating Capital High School by a total of, 8-1, on April 13 at Capital High School. It was the icing on the cake, after defeating 6A opponent Santa Fe High School, 5-4, the day prior at Santa Fe.
In an event that is a 6-3 format, with crossover, six players participate in singles matches and there are three doubles matches that follow. At least five points are needed to win the duel and neither of the Española teams had trouble reaching that number.
The Lady Sundevils nearly swept the singles portion of the duel, but ended up going 5-1 because Izabel Sena was sidelined due to straining her knee in the second set. She had already won the first set, 6-2, and was leading the second set, 4-2, before she could no longer continue.
Sena was in good spirits the rest of the day, laughing and joking with her teammates, despite the injury. She will sit out against Albuquerque Academy, but should be healed in time to return for the district tournament and possibly the state tournament.
The rest of the Lady Sundevils all won their respected matches in two sets.
Kaylinn Martinez defeated Ishara Sorensen, 6-3, 6-0; Ariana Estrada defeated Alyssa Delgado, 6-2, 6-3; Dulce Maldonado defeated Veronica Cruz, 6-2, 6-0; Abigail Rodarte defeated Analini Carrillo, 6-1, 6-3; and Sophia Sena defeated Viki Nava Gonzalez, 6-0, 6-2.
Sophia Sena, the younger sister of Izabel Sena, was the only freshman of the six varsity players. It is a group that only has one senior.
There was no let down for the girls in doubles, either.
They proceeded to sweep those three matches, all in two sets, by a combined game score of 36-6. Maldonado and Martinez won 6-2, 6-0; Estrada and Archuleta won 6-0, 6-2; and Rodarte and Samantha Gasca won 6-2, 6-0.
Española head coach Nancy Suazo is hopeful that the girls can ride the momentum into a state tournament berth.
Considering they’re in the same district as Albuquerque Academy, there is no doubt they are battle-tested.
They are currently second in the district, behind Academy, at 9-6 overall. Suazo believes they will end the season at 10-7, with a more than realistic chance to get into the state tournament.
“I don’t want speculate anything, but I do think we have a good shot at getting in,” she said. “Just look at our play today. We nearly swept them on the girls side, and only didn’t because of Izabel being defaulted.”
The state tournament is a 10-team format, which takes the winners of the four 5A districts, plus six at-large selections.
The boys team also laid down a dominant performance, winning 9-0. All but one of the matches was won in two sets.
Boys number one Josiah Martinez had the closest match, but still defeated Capital’s Aminadab Arras handily, 6-3, 6-1.
Saul Salgado and Dylan Garcia’s doubles match was the last of the day, and also happened to be the longest.
The match went to the third set and ultimately had to end on a 10-point tiebreaker because the third set was tied, 6-6. The temperature was in the high 30s at this point, but that didn’t stop Salgado and Garcia from ditching their sweat pants and sweat shirts to opt for short sleeves and shorts.
“We weren’t worried about the cold,” Garcia said. “We just wanted to win the match and look good doing it.”
Suazo laughed at Garcia’s remarks and acknowledged that he always has a smile on his face and that is the kind of culture she likes to implement in her teams.
“Tennis is supposed to be a fun game,” she said. “We need to always make it fun, but we do work hard. We were here from 2:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., so that’s a lot of time together, you have to lighten up. When you’re a tennis family, it’s a great way to build memories for the players later on in life.”
Overall, Suazo was pleased to see improvements on both the boys’ and girls’ side. Although she admitted that the boys are still a work in progress, she saw them grow a lot on this day against Capital.