STATE CHAMPS
Brothers give LBJ its first UIL tennis title
History COLLEGE STATION — was made and a reputation was enhanced at the UIL boys and girls state tennis championships Friday at Texas A&M’s Mitchell Tennis Center.
Dripping Springs’ Jayci Goldsmith won her second consecutive Class 5A girls singles title. And in winning the 5A boys doubles crown, LBJ’s Chaitanya Aduru and Vishwa Aduru delivered the school’s first state championship in tennis.
Home-court advantage went to Goldsmith. Playing in familiar surroundings, the Texas A&Mbound senior rolled to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Corpus Christi Flour Bluff ’s Femke Tjon-A-Joe.
“It’s very exciting,” said Goldsmith, who wore a white Aggies visor during her match. “My (Texas A&M) coaches are here
watching me. I feel comfortable here. I’ve played many junior tournaments here. It’s going to be my future home.”
Goldsmith surviveda grueling three-plus hour match in Thursday’s semifinal against Connally’s Esther Lovato.
“That last match, it was so hot, I was getting dizzy. I was getting ice every changeover. I knew I had to push through,
and I was able to pull it off,” Goldsmith said. “Today I was
hydrating a lot more because I was scared the same thing was going to happen.”
After taking the first set 6-4, LBJ’s brother tandem fell behind 3-2 in the second set before conferring with coach Ryman Barnes.
“Coach was telling us just take deep breaths,” Chaitanya Aduru said. “You don’t want to play different when you’re losing. Stay even-keeled and push through.”
The Jaguars regrouped and won four consecutive games to close out a 6-4, 6-3 victory over the Lubbock High team of Cody Baker and Kody Kothmann.
“They were kind of stressed,” Barnes said. “It was on their minds: ‘We’ve got to win the state title.’
“We’re really proud to bring it home to Austin,” Barnes said.
In another championship doubles match, Westlake’s Roger Chou collected his second gold medal at the state tournament when he and Cyrus Sabharwal defeated League City Clear Creek’s Michael Raji and Carter Crookston 7-5, 2-6, 6-2 in 6A. Chou won the singles title last year.
“Winning singles was great — to add doubles is really cool,” said Chou, who will continue his tennis career at Brown next year.
In the 6A mixed doubles final, Lake Travis’ Mitali Khoje and Jesse Wikso won a second-set tiebreaker but fell behind 2-0 in the third set and lost 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-2 to Houston Memorial’s Andrew Esses and Drew Morris.
“Their goal was to win the state title, but you can’t be disappointed when you worked as hard as they have,” Lake Travis coach Carol Creel said. “Two years in a row they’ve gone to the state tournament. Going for three in a row next year.”
In the 5A girls doubles final, Austin High’s dream season ended with sophomore twins Annabel and Ainsley Merritt losing 6-1, 6-0 to San Antonio Alamo Heights’ Fiona Crawley and Brianna Wilbur.
“We had a great overall season. The girls really stepped it up,” Maroons coach Leslie Oduwole said of the twins. “Our goal was to get to state, and they got there. The next goal was to make the finals at state, and they got that. We’ve just got to take it one step further.”
In other championship matches, Thorndale’s Landry Laywell achieved her goal of avenging last year’s defeat in the girls 2A final with a dominating 6-0, 6-3 performance against Mason’s Grace Chapman to collect her first state title.
“I trained a lot harder for this season,” Laywell said.
Thrall’s Dylan Ging, who had won his last four sets to advance to the boys 2A final, saw his run end with a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Mason’s Caleb Horne.
‘Coach was telling us just take deep breaths. You don’t want to play different when you’re losing. Stay evenkeeled and push through.’ Chaitanya Aduru Class 5A doubles champion, along with brother Vishwa