By STEFAN MODRICH | Staff Writer
The Brownsville Veterans Memorial Lady Chargers always have high expectations on the tennis court, and the 2019 District 32-5A championship was no different.
The Brownsville Veterans girls captured their second consecutive district title, and Edcouch-Elsa won the boys bracket. Edcouch Elsa’s Francisco Lara (boys singles), Brownsville Veterans’ Anette Lira (girls singles), E-E’s Julio Salinas and Victor Wilson (boys doubles), Porter’s Yuziana Mendez and Guadalupe Suarez (girls doubles), and E-E’s Brian Roel and Karla De Leon (mixed doubles) won individual titles.
Brownsville Veterans coach Leo Casanova said his message to his team this season after a successful 2018 campaign was that putting in the time to hone their craft would pay off. Lira is one such example.
“We were hoping to repeat this year with the girls that we had,” Casanova said. “Those three key victories helped us get enough points to be able to win it.”
Lira dominated for the Lady Chargers in the singles circuit, one of five Brownsville Veterans girls to qualify for the regional. She defeated Edcouch-Elsa’s Giovanna Gonzalez 6-0, 6-0 in the championship match.
“She pretty much just went through the bracket,” Casanova said. “I don’t think she dropped a game or two throughout the whole tournament.”
Seniors Issayana Gavino and Isabella Vasquez impressed Casanova in the girls doubles bracket. The two overcame Porter’s Monica De La Cruz and Litzy Nunez during the third round, only to run into the Cowgirls’ Yuziana Mendez and Guadalupe Suarez. Mendez and Suarez won the doubles title in three sets, 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.
“Our girls doubles, they had two tough matches, they ended up splitting with Porter,” Casanova said. “And in the mixed doubles, it’s a true second, (which means) the winner here goes to regionals. It was in that third set, the deciding set, that they ended up deciding the match pretty quickly, in about 15 minutes.”
In boys singles, Porter’s Pablo Amaro advanced as far as the second round, where he was knocked out by the eventual runner-up, Donna High’s Arnold Sauceda. Sauceda lost 6-2, 6-3 to Lara in the final.
E-E’s Salinas and Wilson defeated Donna High’s Isaias Gonzalez and Joe Alvarado 7-5, 6-4 to claim the boys doubles title.
Porter’s Jesus Salazar and Carlos Gonzalez defeated the Brownsville Veterans team of Bryan Ochoa and Edward Santillana 6-0, 6-0 in the first round before losing 6-3, 6-0 to Alvarado and Gonzalez. The Porter pair topped Valley View’s Ricardo Gonzalez and Mizraim Quintero in the third-place match.
Roel and De Leon rolled through mixed doubles to the final round, where they won a tightly contested match 7-5, 7-5 over the Brownsville Veterans pairing of Jose Garza and Ana Paula Sanchez. Garza and Sanchez faced off with Donna High’s Ismael Fraguso and Ariana Cintora in the true second place match and won 6-4, 6-0.
Porter’s mixed doubles duo of Pablo Olvera and Ayysa Melchor lost 6-3, 6-3 to Garza and Sanchez in the second round. Melchor and Olvera were beaten by Cintora and Fraguso 6-0, 6-1 in the third-place match.