Alonso runs into a few tougher opponents

By Bryan Burns
Published April 26, 2007

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS - Alonso brought one of the best tennis teams Hillsborough County has produced to Wednesday's Class 4A tournament.

A couple of hours into it, however, the Ravens were smarting from a couple of quick beatings.

At No. 2 singles, Alonso's Erin Snook lost her opener in three sets to one of the state's top players, Vero Beach's Kendra Higgins. A few courts away the Ravens' No. 3, Maria Ospina, was losing in two hard-fought sets.

By the end of the day, Alonso had six points with a chance to win four today. Miami Dr. Krop held the team lead with 10.

"It makes it tough to come back after you lose matches right off the top like that," Alonso coach Helen Soash said. "We played well but there are some really great players and teams here."

The defending overall individual champion, Alonso's Megan Broderick, appears poised to win back-to-back titles. Broderick plays for the team individual No. 1 title this morning at 8. If she wins she will come back for the overall title on Friday against the individual-bracket champion.

"I have a lot of confidence in the way I'm playing right now," Broderick said. "It was a bit frustrating for the team but we still have some chances to score a few more points (today)."

One of the brightest lights of the day for Alonso was No. 4 singles player Racquel Hylton, who won her two opening matches in straight sets. This morning Hylton will play for the team No. 4 singles title.

Class 2A

TAMPA - Day 2 wasn't much kinder to the Jesuit boys, who a day earlier entered the tournament with state title aspirations but left that evening out of contention.

Facing top-seeded Michael Anders and Blaze Schwartz of Pensacola Washington in the No. 1 doubles semifinal, Jesuit's Bryan Beasley and Mark Wilkie hung tight early, taking the first set to a tiebreaker. But the Tigers lost a couple crucial points on serve and fell 6-7 (3-7), 1-6.

"The first set could have gone either way," said Beasley, a senior. "Once we got into the tiebreaker, we lost two points on our serve and it was kind of a blur after that. We were trying to make it up after that, but it went by fast and so did the second set."

The loss was the first of the year for Beasley and Wilkie.

"For a No. 1 seed, we gave them a pretty rough time," Beasley said. "We got up a break early and led 2-1, and then I got broken. After that, it was hold, hold, hold, hold every game until the tiebreak."

Chase Merlin and Macale Smith also faced a top-seeded Washington team in the No. 2 doubles semifinal, but like their Jesuit counterparts, Merlin and Smith lost 6-4, 7-5.

"Overall, it was a great tournament," Beasley said. "I can't be disappointed at all. ...I played as hard as I could and we gave everything we had."

Bryan Burns, Times correspondent

Class A

At Tallahassee, Berkeley Prep's doubles team of Brian Shim and Justin Herzig won their quarterfinal 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 over Miami Country Day, but followed with a 6-4, 6-3 loss in the semifinals to Miami Sagemont.

Berkeley Prep coach Gary Baker said Shim and Herzig were disappointed because they had their shots to pull it out against Sagemont, which features the nation's No. 1-ranked doubles junior, Zack Hunter.

"If they would have gotten blown out they might have said, 'Well, we just lost to the nation's top player,' but the fact was they did have their chances," Baker said. "Bottom line, though, I couldn't have asked anything more out of them and they couldn't have asked any more of themselves. They have everything to be proud of."

Scott Purks, Times staff writer

[Last modified April 26, 2007, 00:18:28]