STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Tennis tenacity Port Aransas High School tennis team player Kevin Sikes shows teeth--gritting tenacity as he returns service during the Spring Break Special JV tournament at PAHS on Thursday, March 12. It certainly wasn't chamber of commerce weather, but teams from eight area high schools showed up for the Spring Break Special Tennis Tournament hosted by Port Aransas High School on Thursday and Friday, March 12 and 13.

PAHS tennis coach Piper Boies said, "The weather held out," meaning it didn't rain, but that was about it.

It was cold, windy and misty, but it wasn't enough to stop the show.

Tournament format was eight-game pro sets with no-ad scoring with a tiebreak at 8-8.

In the varsity division, Kasey Reed battled to the boys singles championship match in the top of the bracket before being stopped by Greg Gilmore of Aransas Pass.

Reed opened with a bye, then took the set from Luke Sehlke of George West, 8-5. In the next round, Reed make quick work of Beeville's Scott Townsend, winning 8-3. In the final match, playing a regular six-game set, APs Gilmore stopped Reed, 6-2, 6-1.

In the bottom half of the bracket, Clark Wilson also opened with a bye, then faced tough going. He fought Eric Taylor of Beeville to a tie-break, losing 5-7.

That put him in the consolation bracket where he went to the championship match. In this bracket he also opened with a bye, then took out Taft's Carlos Colmenero, 8-6. In the final match, he was stopped by Ingleside's Paytron Ortiz, 8-3.

Port Aransas' other entry, Matt Fries took a bye on the first round, then was stopped by Ricky Garza of John Paul II Academy - Corpus Christi. Moving to the consolation bracket, Ingleside's Ortiz stopped Fries' progress, 8-2.

The girls doubles team of Katie Fries and Shannon Bundy were consolation champs.

They started with an 8-5 loss to Adams and Watson of Aransas Pass, then took on Cisneros and Alvarado from Austwell- Tivoli, who they defeated, 8-2.

Their next opponents were Yoder and Bonorden of Ingleside, and the PAHS team stopped their action, 8-5.

In the championship match, Fries and Bundy defeated St. Joseph- Victoria's Bichat and Haynes, 8-4, where, according to Boies, "they played some of the best tennis ever." On the other side of the bracket, Abby Kenigsberg and Charlotte Lucke opened with a bye, went on to defeat the George West duo of Millermon and Cansino, 8- 6. They then lost to Beeville's Key and Stasny, 6-4, 3-6 (11-4).

"They played well, and lost a hard one," Boies said.

In boys doubles, David Thrasher and John Eggleston went to the championship match. In their opening match, they fell to St. Joseph's Innes and Villarreal, 6-8. They prevailed in the second round, 8-3 over Salazar and Shane of Beeville. In the next round, they took out Ingleside's Midddleton and Hawkins, 8-6.

In the consolation championship match, APs Rossel and Tirado prevailed over the PAHS team, 8-4.

In junior varsity competition, the mixed doubles team of Blaze Whites and Chloe Tugwell won the consolation bracket. After an opening round bye, they defeated Martinez and Ward of Ingleside, 8-6. In the championship match they pulled off an 8-4 win over Acosta and Hall of Skidmore-Tynan.

The JV boys doubles team of Connor Collins and John Eggleston won when their teammates, Zack Merrill and Kevin Sikes defaulted after Merrill suffered an injury.

Eggleston and Collins opened with a tie-break, winning 10-8 to take the match from Thomson and Frank of John Paul II Academy. In the next round they defeated Burleigh and Garibay of Ingleside, 8-6.

The championship match was to be against Merrill and Sikes, who blew out the competition from Ingleside in the opening round, 8-0. Next up was Glew and Boggess of Skidmore-Tynan, and the Port Aransas pair took them out, 8-1. The Aransas Pass team of Guttierez and Davis was up next, and it was the Merrill and Sikes show again, this time the score was 8-3. Merrill's injury, however, meant that was the end of the competition.

Emily Klein represented Port Aransas in junior varsity girls singles. Beeville's Marisela Ibarra stopped her in the first round, but it took a tie-break, which Klein lost, 4-7.

Klein had a bye in the next round, then was put out of the competition by another Beeville player, Megan Burris, 8-0.