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Tennis: McCasin, Anderson eliminated in the second round
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
After coming up short in their gold-medal quests in singles at the UIL Class 5A State Tournament in Austin, Carroll senior Austin McCasin and junior Kellie Anderson combined forces in an effort to take state in mixed doubles.
And while the duo won its first match over Dillon Eizonbor and Danielle Stillman of Harlingen (6-3, 6-2), the team's run ended in the second round.
"I think they came out a little tentative and nervous in the first match," said Norm Smith, Carroll head coach. "It was on center court and maybe they just started a little slow."
In the second round, however, the pair fell behind early and eventually forfeited in the second set to a team from Austin Westlake after McCasin was penalized for court misconduct. The senior hit a ball off out of the court out of frustration and instead of the standard one-point penalty, received a misconduct because the errant ball struck a player on another court, resulting in the loss (7-6, 4-3).
"They have a girl who is ranked No. 2 in the state and they were really playing some of their better tennis," Smith said. "We actually had the lead, 4-3, in the first set after we broke [Meek] but we weren't able to serve out the set. And then in the tiebreaker we made some errors and lost the first five points and that really took away any momentum we had."
In the second set, the team continued to have difficulties before the misconduct.
"I told the umpire that I disagreed that it was a misconduct instead of a penalty," Smith said. "But the umpire and another official who saw the incident got together and decided to uphold the decision.
"I don't think Austin meant to hit the ball that distance and certainly wasn't attempting to hit anyone. He just acted out of frustration and maybe all the nerves and being on the big stage just affected the thought process. We've talked about this as a life lesson and something that he can learn from. He's a good kid and he'll be packing everything up and heading out to West Point for boot camp here in about six weeks."
Westlake's team of Ryan Meek and Casey Sutton went on to reach the finals, where they defeated San Antonio Churchill's Brian Galon and Taryn Strahl (6-3, 6-4).
"That makes it frustrating, because in my heart, I feel like we had the better team and they went on to win state pretty easily," Smith said. "It would have been better to just have been beaten, because we were still close in the second set and now there are just questions. But we're not going to dwell on it. We just didn't play as well as we could against a good team. Hopefully this is something that will really motivate Kellie to get back next year."
Carroll's team wasn't the only local tandem to come up short in mixed doubles as Marcus' Kyle Barnes and Madison Carr were knocked out in the first round by the eventual finalists from Churchill.
The team gave Churchill all they could handle, however, winning the second set but dropping the first and third sets in tiebreakers.
"It's disappointing because they got to state by winning two tiebreakers in regionals and then were eliminated at state in breakers," said Kelly Langdon, Marcus head coach. "But it was an exciting match and just to have two players make it to state is a highlight for our program."
Marcus' team got out to a slow start, falling behind, 5-1, in the first set before storming back to force a tiebreaker where they came up short, 7-4.
"They started off pretty slow but were able to get to the tiebreaker and really might have missed a couple of chances to rally and win the set before the breaker," Langdon said. "But they really carried the momentum into the second set. They dropped the first game when [Churchill] was serving but got hit and won the next six games of the second set and the first game of the third set."
In the final set, Marcus had leads of 4-3, 5-4 and 6-5, and were at 30-30 in the latter two scenarios.
"We were two points away from winning a couple of times," Langdon said. "We held our serve each time, but we just couldn't get the break to seal the match."
In the third-set breaker, Langdon said he believed Galon and Strahl played their best tennis.
"I think it's the best they could have played," he said. "It wasn't a tiebreaker where we were making a bunch of mistakes or anything. They were just hitting a bunch of good shots and you have to give them credit."
While Carr graduates, Barnes, a junior, could still get another crack at an individual state medal.
Carroll was also represented in boys doubles, where the improbable run of John Woolridge and Collin Alexander came to an end in the first round. Woolridge and Alexander had qualified for state despite not winning a district or regional title.
The team lost against eventual finalists from Houston Memorial William Jou and Grant Reichmann (6-1, 6-2).
"We knew coming in that we would be facing a very tough opponent," Smith said. "And the team we lost to went on to have a very close match in the finals.
"We kept talking about getting on a roll like at regionals and you never know what can happen. Our guys were hitting some bombs with their serves but they would just come back even harder. I think that's what the difference was. They just hit the ball a little harder and more consistently."
But like Anderson, Smith believes this will benefit the group in the long run.
"A junior and a sophomore," he said. "This is great experience for both of them. Hopefully it motivates them to work harder and hopefully next year they will win a match or two or more."
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