Seventh grade tennis girls win district

The seventh grade girls tennis team from Brundrett Middle School won the team trophy at the district tennis tournament.

The tournament, rained out on May 5, was played Wednesday, May 21, in Alice.

Seventh and eighth grade students competed in boys and girls singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches.

Nikki Samudio carried the banner for seventh grade girls singles, winning all of her matches. Opening with a bye, she played Clarissa Rodriguez of Ben Bolt, who had defeated Port Aransas' Bella Flake, and won. Flake defaulted in the final match of the round robin, leaving Samudio in first place.

The seventh grade boys doubles team of John Amundsen and Cameron Martin took the title in that category. They defeated a Woodsboro team, then outlasted the Ben Bolt team to claim the trophy.

Two Port Aransas girls doubles teams, Megan Forrest and Tiffany High and the team of Jessica Borden and Gabby Martinez, were at 5-5 when their match to determine the third and fourth place winners was called because it was getting late. The two teams are to finish the match on their own time.

Michael Safford and Alicia Smallwood finished in third place, and Austin Sergeant and Michelle Arnold, also of Port Aransas, were fourth in seventh grade mixed doubles.

In eighth grade competition, Conner Collins and Brittany Trepanier scored for Port Aransas, winning mixed doubles by outlasting teams from Ben Bolt and Bruni.

Matt Fries and Chris Eggleston made it to the finals in boys doubles, defeating teams from Ben Bolt and Bruni before being taken out by a Woodsboro team in the championship match.

Emily Klein and Samantha Richardson were runners-up in eighth grade girls doubles. They defeated a Bruni team, then lost to a Ben Bolt team in the championship match.

On the other side of that bracket, Gynova Samples and Meagan Hardegree lost to the eventual champions from Ben Bolt, then were defeated by another Ben Bolt team to finish in fourth place.

Port Aransas' entries in eighth grade boys singles went only one round each. Ely Bennett was defeated by Woodsboro's entry, and Trit Lewis was defeated by a Ben Bolt player.

The team was taken to the tournament by athletic director Steve Reaves because of a family emergency for Piper Boies.

Boies said, "I am really proud of the team and the way they played."

The team played in only one tournament before going to district, and Boies said, "They worked hard all season, and improved a great deal from the first tournament to district."

Boies also expressed appreciation to Reaves for filling in during her absence.