Consol dominates courts
By Larry Bowen
Eagle Staff Writer
Published Wednesday, October 17, 2007 2:42 AM

The A&M Consolidated tennis team completed an unbeaten romp through District 13-5A by beating Bryan in the Crosstown Showdown on Tuesday night at the Mitchell Tennis Center.

Consol and Bryan entered the match tied atop the league standings, both assured of berths in the Class 5A Region II team tennis tournament in two weeks. Local bragging rights and the 13-5A championship were at stake, and the 17th-ranked Tigers claimed both by a score of 19-0.

The Tigers have won district in all five years that girls coach Debe Shafer has been with the program, and they welcomed new boys coach Stephen Mercer with a title.

"It's going to be tough at regionals, and you want to continue to improve every match to get prepared," Shafer said. "I think the kids played well. The things we've worked on practice, I see them implementing.

"I'm really happy that both teams are going to regionals. It's good for tennis in the area."

The Vikings qualified for the regional tournament for the first time since 2003. Bryan earned the league's second regional berth with hard-fought wins over Harker Heights and Belton.

"We played no-ad scoring, so I think the scores don't indicate how well we played tonight against Consol," Bryan coach Randy Stewart said. "We've got some rough edges, but I think we competed well. We're battling against a pretty highly rated team."

Consol erased any thoughts of an upset by winning all seven doubles matches to start. On the boys side, the Tigers allowed a total of seven games in straight-sets wins by the teams of Kevin Duffy and Carlos Aguilar, Nathan Cooner and David Hilner, plus Jorge Aguilar and Kevin Wright.

The Consol girls surrendered just six games in doubles, getting wins from Sarah Colunga and Anik Cepeda, Heather Brien and Amanda Trapani, along with Mariah York and Lauren Ashlock.

Brian Sherry and Jessica Raphael won in mixed doubles.

In singles play, No. 1 players Cepeda and Duffy produced solid wins, and the Tigers came through when pushed in a couple of matches in the middle of the lineup.

Consol finished a near-perfect run through six district matches. The Tigers shut out every team except Harker Heights, winning that match 16-3.

The regional tournament will be played in Temple on Oct. 26-27. Consol will host sixth-ranked Klein at 9 a.m. Saturday in one more tuneup match.