The Levelland Lobo Varsity Tennis Pack have wrapped up their fall season short of a playoff run with the hopes of turning the tide once the spring season hits.
Tennis Pack Head Coach Jeffrey Braziel saw a lot of growth from his squad during this fall season. With all returning on the boys’ and girls’ side except for one graduate, the buzzsaw district the Pack are a part of created some challenges.
“The district is extremely tough as we had two top 25 teams in the state at one point,” said Coach Braziel. “We literally finished one match away from making the playoffs, losing 10-9 to a really good Brownfield team that knocked us out.”
Overall, Coach Braziel feels that both his boys and girls lineups had good fall season despite falling short of where they would like to be.
“The boys played phenomenal this year and I think we have five or six of them that have over 20-plus wins this fall,” said Coach Braziel. “The girls stepped up in the matches we needed and played great.”
Coach Braziel added that there were times kids were sick or unavailable which required the alternates who sit in the seven and eight spots on the lineup to fill in and win a few big matches for the team.
Additionally, the varsity boys got some assistance from a JV player during their first district match in the No. 2 boys doubles matchup and helped earn the win defeating the No. 24 ranked team in the state at that time.
“Obviously we are not where we would like to be,” said Coach Braziel. We always want to make the playoffs and go gold ball chasing, but I think the fall season did a really good job of prepping us for spring season.”
Experience for the Pack will a key aspect the group can lean on once the spring season begins. With a bulk of the squad consisting of 12 juniors with extensive varsity experience to this point, the Pack only has two seniors in Ryeton McMahan and Dani Muniz. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Pack has four sophomores.
Part of regrouping after a hard-fought district campaign is Coach Braziel helping his squad find their resolve to get out of district play for a playoff run in the future. That starts with beating their rival in Brownfield.
“Prior to me taking the head coaching role here and now, we have struggled getting past Brownfield,” explained Coach Braziel. “We got close with being one match away. Now that’s another hurdle that mentally we can cross and say it’s doable and we can do that.”
“We played really well against a team that went undefeated in district going 13-6 against them which is closer that it sounds,” continued Coach Braziel. “That’s four matches away and I think we lost two or three of those by tiebreakers. It sets us up for having a good spring.”
Heading into off season work to finish out the fall, Coach Braziel is emphasizing progress. Wanting each athlete to get better every day regardless of the amount, he hopes to fine tune his squad.
“We want out team get better every day even if it is by a little bit,” said Coach Braziel. “We will work on our strongest qualities and grow our game. This is the perfect time to work on the mental aspect of our game and clean up things that held us back this fall.”
Coach Braziel does not think there will be much fluctuation in the lineup for both the boys and girls before the spring season.
“We brought back an entire boys team this year that won spring district last year,” said Coach Braziel. “I don’t see it changing a whole lot there.”
The focus will be placed more on specialty as in who’s playing singles, who’s playing doubles and who will be playing mixed doubles for the Pack.
The Pack is bringing back the returning district champions in boys doubles, a medalist team in mixed doubles and several others which included two sophomore girls that finished fourth last year in doubles who will continue as a pair in the spring.
“We have a strong roster,” said Coach Braziel. “I think we are built a lot better for Spring as a team simply because we do have so many kids that are more specialized. It makes it difficult when you have kids that are great doubles players, but they have to play singles. You have to focus on both singles and doubles instead of focusing on what you are good at.”
With the fall season finished, the Pack had 305 wins. The juniors class alone has 682 varsity wins since joining the varsity team which Coach Braziel believes is a program record according to accessible records.
McMahon had 20 wins this fall and 80 varsity wins total. Muniz had 15 wins this fall and 29 wins in two semesters of varsity play.
Nathan Ellis leads the juniors with 31 wins this fall and 111 varsity wins. Eben Castillano had 29 wins this fall and 65 varsity wins. Michael Canon had 28 wins this fall and 95 varsity wins. Zaver Rogers had 20 wins this fall and 52 varsity wins. Brady Houston had 19 wins this fall and 56 varsity wins. Teagan Brothers had 16 wins this fall and 21 varsity wins. Maddison Almager had 12 wins this fall and 35 varsity wins. Alexis Sanchez had nine wins this fall and 64 varsity wins. Daisy Perez had six wins this fall and 68 varsity wins.
Reese Payton led the sophomores this fall with 25 wins and 55 varsity wins. Charley King had 19 wins this fall and 23 varsity wins. Fabiola Hernandez had 17 wins this fall and 56 varsity wins. Daniela Perez had 12 wins this fall and 55 varsity wins.