Lady Trojans come up short in tennis tourney

Published 9:50 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Although the Charles Henderson Lady Trojan tennis team did not win the Alabama High School Athletic Association tennis tournament, the season did bring many improvements for the team.

Head coach Robert Lewis said the girls have maintained a consistent record.

“Considering our performances throughout the season and throughout the last year, our girls have seen a lot of improvement,” Lewis said.

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“We are a fairly young and inexperienced team.”

” We consistently have a 2-3 record against teams, where we win twice and lose three times.”

“We were battling for third in this tournament, but we just didn’t quite make it.”

Kayla La’Blue, an eighth grader, stepped up for the Lady Trojans when some of the players were unable to play.

“I was really pleased with Kayla. We had some players who didn’t show up, so we did some juggling and put her in the No. 2 seed,” Lewis said.

“She won the first round, and then she lost in the second round to the girl who won the whole seed. She played very well, and she has a lot of potential.”

Olivia Bensinger, 16, made it to the finals as the No. 3 seed.

“Olivia did really well. She won her first match and her second,” Lewis said.

“She lost in a split set to the winner of the third seed, so she won second overall in that seed.”

The rest of the tournament play was suspended until Thursday morning because of the late afternoon rainstorms.

Although the Lady Trojans have one more game to play Thursday morning, Lewis said the team will probably not place.

“Basically the only reason we are finishing the match on Thursday is because mathematically the match hasn’t been decided,” he said.

“We really are out of the picture already.”

The boy’s team will compete on Thursday, and Lewis said he expects them to do well.

“The boys are stronger than the girls, and we anticipate they will do well on what they have done against these teams in the past,” Lewis said.

“All of our teams have worked very hard,” he added.

“The boy’s team has a chance to qualify for state.”

“I’m very proud of the tennis teams,” Lewis said.

The Trojans boys’ tennis team will play Thursday in the AHSAA sectionals tournament at the Troy University tennis courts on Elm Street.