With Tuesday’s clean sweep of Northbrook, Sparty completed District play with a 6-1 record and qualified for the 2023 6A State Tennis Tournament! Big congratulations to Coach Bianchi, Senior Captains Nico Boza, Anna Sanchez, Renee Lee, the players, managers, and trainers for this outstanding achievement!

The 6A bracket is out and the Spartans will host Heights High School this Tuesday, Oct 10th in an exciting first round match-up. The winner gets to take on tennis powerhouse Clements High School of Sugar Land.

vs. Woodlands College Park

On Friday, Stratford Tennis travelled up I-45 to take on the Cavaliers of The Woodlands College Park High School for some non-District action before playoffs begin. With Sparty unable to field three of its top lines due to conflicts, the lower lines stepped up and answered the call.

We start with doubles where nearly every match was competitive but 5 of 6 tilted in College Park’s favor. Fighting Freshman Brianna Johnson stepped up big time, teaming up with Renee Lee and taking it to College Park’s Line 1 Girls doubles. Brianna and Renee stormed back after dropping the first set. Brianna and Renee won the 2nd set in convincing fashion before dropping the tiebreaker.

Big congratulations goes out to Sophia Kang and Ana Salmain, who stepped up multiple lines to take on CP’s Line 2 squad. Sophia and Ana split sets and then won a thrilling 11-9 tiebreaker to finally put Sparty on the board.

Special shout out goes out to managers Tatum Marye and Owen Jeansonne, who—in true Sparty fighting spirit—picked up rackets to made court appearances against a very strong opponent.

Despite 3 top players missing, Sparty still kept things competitive. Line 1 Liam Collins faced off against College Park’s hard-hitting and highly ranked Juno Pethe. Liam fought off a strong effort in the first set before constricting Pethe in the second to win in straight sets.

At Line 5, Christian Nafziger secured a hard-fought tiebreaker victory after coming back from way behind in the first set.

Sophia Kang, who had a great tennis day and almost pulled off the double victory, lost a heartbreaker in the tiebreak at Line 5.

But the story of the day belongs to Brianna Johnson who was pressed into service at Line 2. Brianna came up big, winning in straight sets (and securing a donut in the 2nd) over her big-hitting opponent. Brianna continues to impress with her calm, steely demeanor and determined fighting spirit.

Stratford dropped a non-District match 14-5 to College Park, but secured a berth in the 6A Playoffs. See you at Stratford Courts on Tuesday as Sparty hosts Heights High School.

We had so much fun celebrating our seniors at the SHS Tennis Senior Night!! And thank you to the Lim, Kang, and Nitcholas families for hosting the Varsity dinners recently!