Brownwood tennis throttles Mineral Wells, edged by 5A Fossil Ridge in season debut

August 8, 2024 at 9:31 pm Derrick Stuckly

MINERAL WELLS – The Brownwood Lions and Lady Lions opened their fall tennis season Thursday with a pair of matches – a narrow 10-9 loss to 5A Division I Keller Fossil Ridge followed by a 15-4 triumph over host Mineral Wells.

Against Mineral Wells, the Lions boys doubles teams swept all three matches with victories earned by No. 1 Trine Baugh and Blake Hutchins (8-1 over Samuel Pennicone and Jaxon Brown), No. 2 Wesley Goodrich and Eric Smith (over Charlie Ramsey and Jaxson Gadd) and No. 3 Andre Martinez and Aidan Oplotnik (8-6 over William Hollifield and Rishi Patel).

The Lady Lions, meanwhile, won all but one of their doubles, as well as singles, matches.

In girls doubles, No. 1 Ashlyn Bundick and Zoe Smith (over Emily Hearn and Emma Johnson) and No. 2 Anna Daniel and Amy Deechaluene (8-2 over Raylee Brock and Victoria Salas) landed in the win column.

Lady Lions to tally girls singles wins were No. 1 Bundick (over Emily Hearn), No. 2 Daniel (8-3 over Johnson), No. 3 Smith (over Salas), No. 4 Deechaleune (8-1 over Harley Ethridge) and No. 5 Mackenzie Williams (8-0 over Brock).

Pick up singles victories for the Lions were No. 2 Smith (8-2 over Perricone), No. 3 Hutchins (8-2 over Ramsey), No. 4 Baugh (8-0 over Gadd) and No. 6 Oplotnik (8-0 over Devin Crenshaw).

The mixed doubles match also belonged to Brownwood as Kris Koepp and Sherri Ray downed Eldridge and Crenshaw, 8-0.

In the match with Fossil Ridge, the Lions again swept all three boys doubles matches as the wins were claimed by No. 1 Baugh and Hutchins (8-6 over Devin Mounivoag and David Moran), No. 2 Goodrich and Smith (8-6 over Tyler Russell and Kent Lok) and No. 3 Martinez and Oplotnik (8-4 over Taimin Soni and Evan Dietz).

The Lions tacked on singles wins by No. 2 Smith (8-3 over Mounivoag), No. 4 Baugh (8-4 over Russell), No. 5 Martinez (9-8[3] over Lok) and No. 6 Oplotnik (8-2 over Soni).

For the Lady Lions, victory came in No. 5 singles competition as Williams topped Soniya Bhujel, 8-1.

“Trine Baugh and Eric Smith were the standout players today, they won all of their matches,” said Brownwood High tennis head coach Dalton Hutchins. “Our biggest opponent was the heat, though, and we handled it better than everyone else. Brownwood tennis is in tip-top shape, not Tik-Tok shape.”

The Lions and Lady Lions (1-1) will be back in action Saturday, Aug. 17 at Sweetwater against Snyder at 9 a.m. and Sweetwater at 2 p.m.