The Levelland Highschool Tennis Pack faced off against district foe Frenship Memorial this past Tuesday, losing 16-3.
The loss puts the Pack at an 8-7 overall record on the season and drops them down to 1-4 in district play.
It may have seemed like a blowout from the score, but Head Coach Jeff Braziel chimed in on that.
“I know every coach says this, but the score doesn’t really tell the full story. We lost six tiebreakers, which kind of separates us,” Braziel said. “It goes from a competitive match to one where it looks like you got blown out.”
The Lobos and Loboettes were in practically every single match and showed grit in their performance against a high-level opponent.
Coming into the match, Frenship was in second place in the district standings, trailing only Lubbock Cooper Liberty, who’s ranked in 4A.
The Pack traded blows, going back and forth with their formidable opponent, but they fell short, and Coach Braziel gave insight on why.
“Just getting tight in the big moments, honestly,” Braziel said. “We had match points in every one of those. We got tight and just weren’t able to finish it off.”
This has unfortunately been a consistent problem for the Pack as they are now 10-22 in district tiebreakers this season.
Coach Braziel noted that it has to do with his players mental game more than anything as they have a tendency of getting in their own heads.
“When we get those tight matches, we can’t tighten up, we just gotta play. Don’t worry about the outcome and losing, just keep playing and be who we are,” Braziel said. “It’s not that we’re doing a whole bunch wrong, we’re in every match. We’ve been in a bunch of matches all of district play, it’s just we forget that this is a game, and we’re supposed to have fun. That’s what it’s about and we had those moments where we have less fun and worry about not losing the match.”
The Pack as a whole will look to implement that advice moving forward, but kudos to the three boys who were able to do it in their singles matches this week against Frenship.
Diego Franco won his sixline boy’s singles match, William Cannon won his two-line boy’s singles match and Reese Payton won his four-line boy’s singles match.
The trio was responsible for Levelland’s three lone wins on the day, and Coach Braziel talked on how he thought they made it happen.
“Man, just digging deep in those big moments and not being afraid to lose,” Braziel said. “I tell them all the time, when you get afraid to lose you start messing up. Just hit the ball like you’re going to win the shot every time and even when we got behind, all three turned it on and dug deep in their souls and put it all out there. They gave everything they had, plus some.”
Great job by Franco, Cannon and Payton leading the way with their fantastic winning efforts.
Their teammates are more than capable of doing the same as this team can move from just competing with elite teams to becoming one, but they must sharpen up mentally and loosen up physically.
And with Bi-District right around the corner, they’ll have to do it urgently.
Coach Braziel said the playoffs aren’t out of reach, but they’ll need some help from other district matches.
The Pack’s final regular season match is Tuesday at 4pm on the road against Seminole as they push for the playoffs.