Fulgenzis plow through their opponents (again)
ALBUQUERQUE — After moving aside to make room for wave after wave of Fulgenzis filtering through the crowd to pose for photos with their latest medal-winning family member, Gabe Gregory made his way over to his own little cheering section for his more personal shining moment.
With eighth-grader Nico Fulgenzi cast as his doubles partner, the Las Vegas Robertson junior picked up his family’s first individual championship medal as he and Fulgenzi swept past Bosque’s Gus Voelker and Morgan Wong in Thursday’s Class 1A-4A finals at the Jerry Cline Complex.
The 6-2, 6-3 win was one of three on the day for Robertson, which also got title runs in the girls’ singles and doubles tournaments. Brandelyn Fulgenzi capped an insanely dominant senior season by steamrolling her way to her second singles title and fourth championship since her freshman year while the doubles pair of Fulgenzi cousins, Jenese and Lauren, rallied from a set down to beat Santa Fe Prep’s freshmen tandem of Isabel Voinescu and Grace Vivian.
“You know, just to be a part of this is amazing,” Gregory said. “Great teammates and a coach who makes us better. It’s such a good feeling to be a part of it now.”
The Cardinals almost had a fourth title, but Andres Garcia’s run to the 1A-4A singles finals ended with a straight-sets loss to No. 1 seed Adomas Skauda of Hope Christian.
All in all, though, just another day at the office for the Fulgenzi Tennis Factory and the Robertson program as a whole.
Just moments after dusting No. 3 seed Sarah Blaeser of Portales in roughly half an hour, Brandelyn Fulgenzi said there were at least a couple of players at the Jerry Cline Complex who could send her spiraling down the drain — and both of them are in her immediate family.
“My dad [Warren Fulgenzi Sr.] is pretty good but Dubs [brother Warren Jr.] could pretty much beat me bad,” she said.
Anyone else? Not in 1A-4A. Same, too, for most anyone else in 5A and 6A.
Brandelyn didn’t lose a game all tournament, capping an undefeated season in which she lost only nine games and zero sets all spring. Her much-anticipated finals matchup with
No. 2 seed Haley Garcia of St. Michael’s never materialized as Garcia was beaten 7-5, 6-3 by Blaeser in the semifinals.
Garcia did manage to finish third with a straight-sets win over Amanda Martin of Bernalillo.
Having won the doubles state title each of the last two years with her younger sister Lauren, Brandelyn Fulgenzi said she elected to give the singles draw a try as she puts her stellar prep career to rest. She also won the 2015 singles championship.
“No regrets, because playing with my sister the last couple of years is something I can always hang onto,” she said. “I’ll always be able to say I won state twice with my sister and twice as a singles player.”
Lauren’s run to the doubles finals with her cousin nearly derailed when the pair ran into Prep’s Voinescu and Vivian. The teams had squared off before and it was never as entertaining as Thursday’s match, played at the same time as the boys’ doubles final one court over.
Unseeded coming in, the Prep teammates survived a marathon three-set win over the No. 2 seed from Mesilla Valley in the quarterfinals and then a 6-3, 6-1 win over Cameron Calabrese and Kyra Chavez of St. Michael’s in the semifinals. The Fulgenzis took a much easier path to the finals, winning two matches while dropping just three games in four sets.
Then came the finals as Vivian and Voinescu won the first set in a tiebreak. Shaken but not completely rattled, the Fulgenzis stormed back to win the final two sets 6-0, 6-1, to make it four straight years an all-Fulgenzi pair won the 1A-4A doubles state championship.
Basking in his own moment of glory was Robertson eighthgrader, Nico Fulgenzi. Surrounded by family, he said there’s no telling what the future holds for his time at the state tournament.
“I don’t know if I’ll do singles next year,” he said. “I still have time to figure that out. Right now I’m just happy I won. I’m happy Gabe and I did this. He’s the perfect partner.”
In 5A, the Los Alamos doubles team of Martin Naud and Thomas Chadwick reached the finals before losing in straight sets to the No. 1 team from Albuquerque Academy. Naud and Chadwick swept their first two matches, then needed three sets to survive the semifinals before getting beaten in straight sets in the finals.