The Española Valley High School girls tennis team finished the regular season 10-7, after defeating V. Sue Cleveland High School, 8-1, April 23, at Cleveland.
The Lady Sundevils dominated the singles portion of the match, sweeping the Lady Storm, 6-0.
All of the matches were won in two sets, except one — junior Dulce Maldonado had trouble with eighth-grader Cadence Boras, but won the set-three tie break, 10-1.
The overall victory for the entire match was already settled after singles, then Española took two out of the three doubles matches that followed.
Sophia Sena and Abigail Rodarte defeated Audrey Stubbs and Kathryn Korbas, 6-1 and 6-3; and Izabel Sena and Jaden Archuleta defeated Boras and Mikayla Barrettee, 10-4, in a tie break.
Izabel Sena and Archuleta struggled in the first set, losing 5-7, but cranked up the intensity to win the second set, 6-1, before controlling the tiebreaker.
“We have two different types of serves and ways we hit the ball,” Izabel Sena said about herself and Archuleta. “I think we combine really well to make the perfect team. We didn’t worry about the first set, we just had to play better — and we did.”
Kaylinn Martinez and Maldonado suffered the only defeat of the day, falling to Annabelle Figuroa and Alexis Bonbrake in a tie break, 10-8.
They were trailing 5-9 in the tie break, then fought back to 8-9, but could not complete the comeback.
“We like to have fun together as a team,” Martinez said after the doubles defeat. “Sometimes I think that causes us to lose focus a bit. Once we realized we needed those four points, we turned it on, but just fell short. Going into state, we’re going to have to stay sharp — no laughing and no messing around.”
The Lady Sundevils should expect to receive an invitation as an at-large bid to the Class 5A state tournament, May 4-5, at the Sierra Vista West Tennis Complex and the Jerry Cline Tennis Center, in Albuquerque.
“Nothing is for sure, but I think we’ve proved ourselves,” Española head coach Nancy Suazo said. “This match was very important to improve our potential seeding. I imagine we’ll be at the sixth or seventh seed, but I’m really hoping for the sixth.”
Receiving the sixth seed would mean that Española would get a first-round bye and not have to play until May 4 in the evening.
Seeds seven though 10 play earlier that morning.
Suazo explained that finishing in second place and the strength of schedule in one of Class 5A’s toughest districts should be noted.
“Depending on the way the seeding ends up, it might turn out that we played against all the top teams in 5A,” she said.
Cleveland was the latest 6A school they defeated. They also took down Santa Fe High School, 5-4, April 12. Both victories against the larger schools were on the road.
The Lady Sundevils lost all the matches to those top Class 5A opponents that Suazo mentioned (Albuquerque Academy, Farmington High School and Belen High School), but won nearly every match against inferior opponents.
Before state, Española will participate in the Class 5A District 2 tournament, April 27-28, at Capital High School in Santa Fe.