By ANDREW CRUM, Staff Writer
In another tune-up before the district matches next month, Los Fresnos will play host to its annual tennis tournament.
The Falcons will compete against tennis teams from Hanna, Porter, St. Joseph Academy, Port Isabel, Harlingen High, Harlingen South and Weslaco High in the Los Fresnos Invitational starting today at 8 a.m. at the Brownsville Tennis Center and Los Fresnos. The event concludes Saturday at Los Fresnos.
On Friday, boys and girls singles and mixed doubles teams will be competing at the Tennis Center while the boys and girls doubles teams will be at Los Fresnos. The finals of the consolation bracket will be completed Friday. The semifinal, third-place and finals matches will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday at Los Fresnos.
“I think it will be a pretty competitive tournament,” Los Fresnos coach Bill Sandlin said. “You’re guaranteed three, possibly four matches. There are some very good individual players from each team.”
St. Joseph’s Fernando Alvarez, who won the boys singles in the tournament in 2015, is the top seed in the boys singles bracket this year, and the SJA boys doubles team of Eduardo Alvarez and Mauricio Hage are also a top seed.
Valeria Montero of Harlingen South is the girls singles top seed. The Weslaco girls doubles team and Harlingen South’s mixed doubles team are the other top seeds in the tournament.
The eight-team tournament is slightly smaller this year compared to last year when Hanna topped the 13-team field.
Sandlin lost plenty of experience last year with several graduating seniors, but hopes this tournament will continue to develop his younger squad.
“Overall, I have a pretty young team,” he said. “I’m planning on getting some good experience (for them).”
Los Fresnos finished fourth last year, but hopes to improve during this season’s tournament as team’s have just a few more chances to improve before district matches starting at the end of the month and during April.
But Sandlin is confident in his young team.
“I’m looking for my team to do pretty well, be very competitive,” he said. “The kids are coming right along.”
Andrew Crum covers sports for The Brownsville Herald. You can reach him at (956) 982-6629 or via email at [email protected]. On Twitter, he’s @andrewmcrum.