Grapevine tennis improves on last year’s state showing

The Grapevine tennis team qualified more athletes than last season for the state tournament this spring, and coach Ryan Gillen said he was pleased with his team’s efforts.

Grapevine had Tine and Miha Valencic advance to the finals match in boys’ doubles, and Gillen said he was happy with their performance.

“We got off to a good start,” Gillen said. “I thought we played well into the quarterfinals. Everybody, even our mixed doubles team that lost to the eventual state champions. In the semifinals, we ran into some really tough competition. My girls doubles fought hard, but fell to Vandergriff, which were the eventual state champions. Samantha Wong battled hard in the semifinals, and lost to the state runner up.

“The boys doubles fought hard and got through a tough semifinals match against Vandergriff in the semfinals and then got to the finals, we were up a set and 4-3 on serve and I think we got a little tight and nervous. Overall, I am very proud of our kids and how they did at state.”

Gillen said he was very impressed with his his boys’ doubles effort at state, not just because they reached the championship match, but also because of what they had to overcome to get there.

“My boys doubles team was kind of thrown together at the last minute,” Gillen said. “Miha has been injured all spring. They are twin brothers and they always wanted to play together, so for them to do as well as they did is remarkable. For playing just three tournaments together, they really showed some guts and grit.”

Bella Bergman and Raillane Kamden won their quarterfinals match up against a team from Frisco Independence in girls doubles, and Kali Hamilton and Calum Robe qualified for state in the mixed doubles.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 1:03 PM with the headline "Grapevine tennis improves on last year’s state showing."