FRIENDSWOOD — The Friendswood Mustangs tennis team dug a deep hole for themselves in the doubles event that they could not climb out of Saturday afternoon.
The end result was a 10-1 loss to top-seeded and No. 7 state-ranked Montgomery in the Region III-4A Team Tennis Championships final played at Friendswood High School.
Friendswood, the District 23 champion and defending Region III champion, finishes the year at 9-10, while Montgomery (16-6) advances to this weekend’s University Interscholastic League state tournament in Lakeway for the first time.
The Mustangs, the No. 2 seeds and No. 13-ranked team in the state, entered the singles action trailing 6-1, but could have easily been down by only 4-3 if they could have prevailed in the No. 2 girls doubles and No. 3 boys doubles matches, both of which were decided in three sets.
“Being down 1-6 made it tough for us to come back in the singles,” Friendswood first-year head coach Andi Moreno-Morman said afterward. Montgomery coach Jim Moore agreed.
“That was huge,” he said of the 6-1 advantage. “I felt good at 4-1, but it would have been a lot tougher in the singles if those two doubles matches would have turned out differently. They were disheartened as a team after losing them.”
The Mustangs’ mixed doubles team of Juliana Anderson and Seth Park kept Friendswood within 4-1, beating Rachel Polk and Casey Chilcoat in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3.
But after winning the first sets in both of the remaining doubles matches, Montgomery extended its lead to 6-1.
In the girls No. 2 doubles, Montgomery’s Claudia Papp and Sarah Sload rallied for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Sylene Linde and Lizzie Majchrowicz. Then in the boys No. 3 doubles, Taylor Huckabay and Jimmy Neel overcame an early third-set deficit for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over Kevin Melgren and Mark Wachowicz.
When Huckabay hammered a forehand return winner on quadruple match point, Montgomery was up 6-1.
“I felt going into the match we were going to have to compete in the doubles to have a chance in the singles,” Morman said. However, Montgomery wasted little time dethroning the 2004 champions, winning the top two singles matches in both the boys and girls matchups.
Straight-set wins by No. 1 Shaun Maddox and No. 2 Cameron Clawson over Park and Chris Bayer, respectively, bumped Montgomery’s lead to 8-1.
After Montgomery’s No. 2 Paige Hawkins beat Mackenzie Gallegos, 6-2, 6-0, to make it 9-1, No. 1 Kristie Reid ended the match with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Katherine Laine.
In the 10th game of the second set, Laine jumped to a 0-30 lead. But Reid avoided the service break and reeled off four consecutive points, the latter when Laine’s overhead attempt sailed long.
“Again, winning those last two doubles matches was huge for our kids,” Moore said. “Instead of being up 6-1, we would have only been up 4-3 and could still be here playing the singles into the dark. It could have been 9-all and come down to that last singles match.”
Friendswood advanced to the championship round with a 10-7 win over third-seeded and No. 20 state-ranked Nacogdoches in the semifinals. At the same time, Montgomery was eliminating fourth-seeded Richmond Foster 10-0.
The Mustangs grabbed a 5-2 lead after the doubles, sweeping the girls and winning the mixed before claiming five more wins in the singles. Melgren completed the match victory with a three-set win in the No. 3 boys slot.
“The kids had a great year,” Morman said. “We started off 1-5, but went to Corpus Christi and had an awesome tournament (Little State). We got some wins there to finish fifth and got things going.”
