Tennis Team Battles at Blue/Gold

With the fall off-season well underway, and the Regional Intercollegiate Tennis Association Championships quickly approaching, the St. Edward’s Men’s and Women’s Tennis coach’s decided to create some competition for their players to better prepare. Head Coach Russell Sterns and Assistant Coach Simon Boyce each drafted teams of both men and women players, putting one squad against the other, in what became a flashback to Texas high school team tennis.
The Blue/Gold Challenge between the Gold team, coached by Sterns, and the Blue team, coached by Boyce, was a two-day competition of singles, doubles, and mixed doubles matches. The teams consisted of four men and five women, each competing in two singles matches, two doubles matches, and one mixed doubles match with two girls playing only singles.
Day one on Friday presented one singles and one doubles for each player, finishing with the Gold team leading in overall matches 7-6. The Blue team got victories from freshman Luis Rivora and freshman Heather Brien, while seniors Elizabeth Jacobi and Nick Arnold each won their singles match for the Gold team.
“Luis showed that he will be a potential impact player at this level, Boyce said.
Juniors Brett Powers and Justin Raiti teamed up to earn a win for the Gold team, while the Blue team got a win from freshmen Mary Bain and Audrey Tompkins.
On the final day of the Blue/Gold Challenge the intensity rose as the outcome came down to the final matches. The match was set up with mixed doubles at the end so if it was close, it would be decided on the racquets of both men and women.
When singles and doubles were finished, the overall score was 13-13, with only four mixed doubles matches left to decide it. Junior Bernie Lancaster and Tompkins pulled out a close 9-8 victory for the Blue team, the only mixed match their team would win. The Gold team took three of the four mixed matches to claim the Blue/Gold Challenge championship 16-14.
“Both coach Sterns and I are very excited about the year ahead,” Boyce said.

While the expectations were high going in to this weekend, the men’s team came home with mixed results. Raiti earned two wins on his way to the quarterfinals where he fell to the number one seed. Raiti then teamed up with Powers to reach the quarterfinals of the doubles draw, before falling to ACU’s team of Nunez and Hudson. “The team has a lot of work to do before the spring season,” Boyce said.
The girl’s team will travel to Abilene Oct 3-5 to compete in the Regional ITA.