Saturday, March 29, 2008

Belen tennis teams play late into the night

Eagles to travel to face tough Valley squad Tuesday

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Albuquerque Belen High School's tennis teams were hoping to get a pair of wins and get home at a decent hour on a school night Thursday. The BHS girls team at least got the win part of that goal accomplished.

The Eagle tennis teams, having started matches against Albuquerque High at the Tennis Center of Albuquerque at 3:30 p.m., didn't return to Belen until around 10 p.m. after some extremely long matches. The girls returned with a 7-2 win over the Lady Bulldogs, while the Eagle boys came up 5-4 losers to AHS.

"There was a lot of good tennis, and Albuquerque High has nice kids who work hard," said BHS coach Regina Elkins. "They weren't just going to give it to us."

The girls teams were led by singles victories from Brittany Vallejos, Stephanie Sander, Alishia Montoya and Kassandra Trujillo. Vallejos, playing Alexa Klages in the No. 2 match, was the only BHS singles winner to have a tough match. She won 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (10-8).

Belen's No. 1 girls doubles team, Loretta Lawson and Shannon Billingsley, was one of two doubles teams to need three sets to win. Caitlin Cano, paired with Ale Padilla, was the other. Britney Thompson and Jeriann Thompson won easily.

The girls matches took longer than the boys; the Lady Bulldogs brought only six girls, so none of the doubles and singles matches could played at the same time.

"They had to turn the lights on for us," said Elkins.

David Grega and Taylor Williams were the singles winners for the boys. Williams bounced back from a 6-2 loss in his first set against Jeff Solan, then won 6-2 and battled to a 10-8 tiebreaker win in triumphing in the final set, 7-6.

Grega teamed with Chris Lucero to easily win the No. 1 doubles match, but Drew Sander and Kiko Lanear needed to overcome a tough start to beat Zack Dales and Jordan Gutierrez, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.

"Everybody learned some new things at this match," said Elkins. "Even David (Grega)."

The girls and boys both are set to travel to Valley High School for a 3:30 p.m. dual with the Vikings on Tuesday. The Eagles' home opener is set for 3 p.m.on Thursday when they host Manzano.

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