THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

For several seasons, the Odessa High tennis team has been near or at the bottom of its district. This season, the plan is to change that and even push for a playoff spot. Tuesday night, Odessa High welcomed San Angelo Lake View to the Ratliff Stadium Tennis Complex in what head coach Josh Moore called “the most even match of the season so far.” The Bronchos downed the Chiefs 16-3 by being the more aggressive team throughout the series of matches. “Right here tells them everything that we’ve done to this point is working and keep doing it,” Moore said. “Right here sets the tone for district for sure.” Six doubles contests started the day, followed by with mixed doubles and singles. The Lady Bronchos top pair of Azaria Quezada and Jazmine Arenivas defeated San Angelo Lake View’s Alyashia Capachina and Emily Hahn pair 6-1, 7-5. Arenivas and Quezada easily coasted to a first set victory but had a little more trouble finishing off the San Angelo Lake View pair. Once they got closer to the net and were able to finish the chances they took, the Lady Bronchos duo was able to close out the match without a tiebreaker. “I just think that we had kind of got a little too confident after our first set and then the second set we were down and we had to pull ourselves together and make it through,” Quezada said. “We played our game, not theirs.” “We’re getting better at the net and I feel like that makes us more confident during games,” Arenivas added. The Bronchos’ top boys pair — senior Xavier Martinez Chavez and sophomore Jeremy Franco — needed a tiebreaker to pull out a win against the top Chiefs duo. After winning the first set 7-5, Martinez Chavez and Franco fell back during the second set and lost 3-6. “Communication is key in doubles,” Franco said. “You can’t be both going for the same shot.” Both Franco and Martinez Chavez said they made easy mistakes in the second set that they corrected in the tiebreaker — which they controlled from beginning to end. The duo won the third and final set 10-4 to take the match against the Chiefs’ Francisco Mendoza and Erik Torres. “If you don’t have a partner that you like, there’s no point in playing doubles because you will fail,” Martinez Chavez said. “It’s all about teamwork. My partner was there for me when I needed him. “Honestly every time I messed up I did get really mad and if he wasn’t there to cool me down, we would have lost.” Odessa High (5-3) led 5-1 after the doubles. Before the win against San Angelo Lake View, Odessa High defeated Brownfield, Sweetwater, Pecos and Midlothian Heritage. It suffered losses to Cedar Hill, Euless Trinity and Andrews. “I’m happy with the way they’ve played,” Moore said about his team. “None of these kids have won a dual match before this year. It’s a bunch of young kids coming up. “It’s mainly learning every match. We did the things we were supposed to against the weaker teams, maybe could have done a few little things better against the better teams.” Before coming to Odessa High, Moore was the head tennis coach at Fort Stockton and before that was a tennis coach at Crockett Middle School. At Crockett, he coached many of his current players. Moore credits his teams’ success so far this season to being aggressive and learning from its mistakes. And with District 2-6A play beginning Sept. 9 at Wolfforth Frenship, this win is a big boost in hopes of continued success. "That’s the good thing about having so many young players is they’re not used to losing,” Moore said. “That’s been a big change.”

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Odessa High School Athletics

ODESSA HIGH DOMINATES SAN ANGELO LAKE VIEW WITH AGGRESSIVE PLAY

ERIC BLUM

Odessa American | 8/29/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Jacob Ford