Back-to-back: RHS girls tennis returns to state
By Brannon King / For the FCT
For the second consecutive year, the Russellville varsity girls’ tennis team is Class 5A, Section 8 champions and will head to Mobile for state competition.
The RHS girls and boys teams hosted sectional play April 17 with Deshler, Brooks, Wilson, Fayette County and Central-Florence rounding out the field. The top two boys and girls teams advanced to state, with Russellville winning the girls’ side over Deshler by a 53-46 point total. In boys’ action, both Fayette County and Brooks finished with 35 points to advance.
The state competition will be held April 23-24.
Russellville’s girls advanced to the finals in each of the six singles brackets in section play and also reached the finals in all three doubles competitions.
In No. 1 singles, Deshler’s Anna Holway defeated Russellville’s Katie Burns by a 6-2, 6-3 score. Abbi Holley took No. 2 singles over Rebecca Parrish of RHS in a tiebreaker.
Russellville’s Anna Woods continued her mastery in section tennis with a win over Wilson High’s Kaitlyn Wilson, 6-0, 6-4. Ellyse Strickland took No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-1 over Deshler’s Lauren Buckner, and in No. 5 singles, Emma Claire Bragwell of RHS defeated Brook Mullins of Brooks, 6-4, 6-3.
Russellville’s Addie Scruggs rounded out the group of winners by taking down Deshler’s Jenci Gist, 6-4, 6-2.
On the doubles’ courts Holway and Holley from Deshler won over Russellville’s Burns and Strickland, 7-5, 6-2 in No. 1 play. No. 2 doubles went to Russellville’s duo of Parrish and Woods by a 6-4, 6-4 final, and in No. 3 doubles, Karsen Kelley and Kellie Burden of Deshler won over Kaydee Holland and Callie Palmer of RHS, 6-4, 2-6, 7-4.
“I’ve never been prouder of a group of girls,” Russellville head coach Charlotte Dollar said just after her team was presented the first place trophy. “They played awesome, and it was a hard-fought season all year. Every time we played Deshler, and every time we played Brooks, it was a super tight match. They both have excellent, superb teams, and to come out ahead of them here means the world.
“We’re back-to-back section champs, and that’s amazing.”
On the boys’ side, Fayette County and Brooks were the leaders of the pack. Both teams advanced to state, along with Central’s Andrew Mashburn, who took No. 1 singles. He and teammate Elijah Mashburn will also compete in Mobile after taking first in No. 1 doubles.
Anthony Ruiz of RHS got a first-round bye in No. 2 singles before losing to Elijah Mashburn of Central. Tithe Brown of Brooks took first in the group.
Samuel Franklin competed in No. 3 singles for RHS. After a first-round bye, he was defeated by Ethan Myrick of Brooks.
In No. 4 singles, Russellville’s Kiah Derrick advanced to the finals with Preston Jones of Fayette County. Jones took first by a 6-2, 6-3 score.
No. 5 singles went to Fayette County’s Jake Beede, winning over Drew Keeton of Brooks, with Eduardo Vargas competing for RHS.
Tino Soto competed for RHS in No. 6 singles, and the championship match was between Fayette’s Landon Hamlett and Jack Shaddix from Brooks.
No. 1 doubles was won by Central’s team of Mashburns over Wilson. Russellville’s doubles teams consisting of No. 1 Ethan Howard/Samuel Franklin, No. 2 Anthony Ruiz/Kiah Derrick and No. 3 Eduardo Vargas/Tino Soto also competed, with the No. 2 group making it to finals against Brooks.
Russellville’s young boys team finished the year by winning their last seven matches of the season after losing their first six, showing improvement under first-year head coach Brett Voss.
“We finished the year really strong, and we got better as the year went on, which is what you want with a young team,” Voss said. “You just want to get better every week, and that’s what we did.”
