Lady Tigers lose tough match against Española
Taos boys, girls don’t make cut for championships
The Quail Ridge hosted the 2-4A districts Individual tournament on Friday (April 29).
Sportsmanship and integrity was displayed by two Lady Tigers in the opening rounds of the tennis districts. The Moriarty tennis coach, Melanie Upshaw, was impressed by the honesty of Marlena Gerken and Corrina Harrower. With match point in their favor against the Lady Pinto duo of Summer Trammell and Ziva Goldfein, the Lady Tigers called a ball “in” that the other team believed to have been outside the lines, thus extending the match instead of winning by deception.
Marlena Gerken and Corrina Harrower advanced to the next round against the Lady Sundevils duo of Daphne Talamantes and Katy Gaitan.
Ava Gerken and Violet Kirshbaum faced a bye in the first round and then lost to Aubrianna Garduno and Nicole Velazquez of Española Valley in the second round.
Selena Bayles defeated Raton eighth-grader Victoria Vega in the first round and then lost to Elliannah Lieberman in the second round.
The top-ranked boys tennis player for Taos, Robbie Gersten, retired from the team, as he’s visiting colleges to move on to the next chapter of his life. The second-ranked tennis player for Taos, Lucas Backer, played in the doubles format with partner Asher Maddox against the Hilltoppers duo of brothers Nicolas Witowski and Mike Witowski. The Witowski’s won, 6-1, 6-1.
That left Ben Currey and Seth Danamann as the top options for Taos in the singles tennis format.
Danamann had a bye in his first round matchup and advanced to face Moriarty’s Jose Navarro.
Currey won his first round matchup against Raton’s eight grader Xavier Sandoval, 6-1, 6-1.
In the next round, he had to face the taller Ryan Sood of Los Alamos.
Play by Play of Currey and Sood
Long return by Currey, 0-15. Good return by Currey but barely long. 0-30. Sood double faults 15-30. Currey’s return is wide, 15-40. On the final play Currey catches the tennis ball on the rim of the tennis frame, and essentially hooks the ball into the adjacent court.
0-1 CURREY
In the second game, Sood won the game with a solid serve that Currey couldn’t make proper contact on.
0-2 CURREY
In the third game, Currey had a 30-love lead, but then double faulted and his backhand shots had a short trajectory that started at or below the net and nosedived straight toward the bottom of the net. He lost the game on a flop shot that was wide.
CURREY 0-3
Currey lost the fourth and fifth game.
CURREY 0-5.
Sood started to experiment with drop shots and slice shots that were quite telegraphed. These shots were also not coming in tactical opportunities, such as when your opponent is far from the net and would need a full-on sprint to make up the distance. Currey had difficulties returning the tennis ball with all the spin imparted on it. He lost the first set.
The rest of the game was smooth sailing for Sood. He was never unsettled by or forced to pick up his intensity in the second set. There were few rallies in the match, since most points were won from Currey’s unforced errors. Sood wasn’t getting his first serves in, but he also wasn’t getting punished for his slower second serve. Currey could never get into a proper rhythm or overcome his lack of a backhand.
Apparently, he used to have a one-handed backhand but it wasn’t effective, so the tennis coaches tried teaching him the technique for a two-handed backhand the week of the tournament. It was too quick of a turnaround time to fully incorporate the stroke.
Sood won the second set by the same score. After the match, Sood confessed to Currey, “I’ll be honest, I was aiming for your backhand.”
Danamann was now the last hope for the Taos boys. Navarro and Danamann were both hitting the ball relatively flat and not with much pace. Still, the two tennis players were exhibiting elements of strategy. Navarro’s serve was a gentle tap in, and after it cleared the net, he would amble his way to the net for a potential volley. This type of scenario would repeat itself throughout the match. Danamann, playing from the baseline, would run toward the net off of Navarro’s volley and try to lob it over Navarro. Sometimes Danamann would hit a sweet higharching lob to win the point, and other times Navarro would be well within reach to spike the ball for a point in his favor. Navarro won both sets and advanced to the next round, where he would face the overall top-ranked player of the tournament, St. Michael’s Wade McDermott.
The best chance for Taos to have representation in the state tournament was Marlena Gerken and Harrower. They were sharp and incisive, but Talamantes and Gaitan were equal to the task. When Gerken and Gaitan were on the outside as either server or returner, they’d exchange powerfully hit balls against each other. Gaitan would load up her whole body into her strokes.
The strong winds played a factor in the match. The winds disturbed the players’ toss and it decreased the accuracy of serves. Strokes taken against the wind fell short of the net, and strokes taken with tailwind soared high and out of bounds.
At one point Harrower hit a serve with full force, but against the wind, it just narrowly creeped over the net and in play for the slow ace. Española called it out but it was clearly in, even though it was originally deceptive. The crowd also agreed that it should have been called in, but the public’s opinion has no say in the matter. Harrower had to plead her case to Española, and they eventually agreed with her.
Harrower was great at playing near the net — she would use her length to reach lobs, and she was usually in the right spots to hit game-winners. Marlena Gerken showed excellent reaction times when it came to shots that were smashed directly at her.
Tennis coach Roger Pastore approached the girls to talk strategy. He told them that they needed to close the gap between them on the court, not be so wide apart to allow a shot down the middle. Whoever’s playing close to the net should hover around the T of the court instead of the alley.
He then told them, “you play well, you win this.”
The games between them were tense and hard-fought, but Española pulled out the victory.
With that loss, no one from the Taos Tigers tennis team, boy or girl, single or doubles, advanced to the state championships.