Jenks wins 6A girls tennis title, although Edmond Deer Creek No. 1 doubles team prevails
By Michael Kinney
Photo of Jenks' Avery Arent, the 6A No. 1 singles state champion
OKLAHOMA CITY - By the time Jenks' No. 1 girls doubles team had reached the third set of their championship bout with Edmond Deer Creek, the Lady Trojans had already wrapped up the overall 6A team title.
Placing a competitor in each of the four championship matches gave the 19-time champion an unchallengeable lead.
However, the Lady Trojans' duo of Carrington Hessen and Ava Jacobsen had a chance to put an exclamation point on Jenks’ title run. With a victory, the Trojans would have taken home three of the four individual titles.
Unfortunately for Jenks, an inspired Deer Creek squad was standing in their way. In a marathon match that lasted nearly three hours in 95-degree heat, the Antlers' Sindhya Attura and Paige Ludlam won, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, to claim the girls 6A No. 1 doubles state championship Saturday at the Oklahoma City Tennis Center.
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“Would it be bad if I said the key was Ava Jacobsen cramping,” Attura said. “Also, in the first set, I personally did not believe we could win.
"Coach (Craig) Hays did a great job of motivating us. He talked about how we had never gotten a set before against them and I really wanted that set against them. I think that set the momentum for us.”
The Lady Trojans were the top seed in the doubles division, and it looked like they were going to run away with it after their 6-4 win in the first set. But as the day wore on, Jacobsen seemingly started to cramp up and that left Hessen to have to cover much of the court as her partner could only watch.
The Antlers, who had their own bouts of cramping, took advantage of the situation and put the contest away by winning the final two sets.
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“Just watching Sindhya perform, I felt like I needed to step it up,” Ludlam said. “So that was a lot of motivation.
"It feels unreal. A long time coming. I am just excited that I have it, finally.”
Despite losing in the No. 1 doubles, Jenks still did win the team title. They took home two individual championships and two runner-ups in the process.
“They did amazing this weekend,” said Jenks coach Jeff Wohlmershauser. “They came out and performed every single line. They did exactly what they needed to do. We all got to the finals, which is a really good result, overall.
"We had a couple of individual wins and the team won, obviously. It was a great result overall for the team.”
Jenks' Avery Arent finished her freshman season as the top player in class 6A. In her first trip to the state tournament, she walked away with the 6A No. 1 singles title after beating Bishop Kelley’s Jase Bailey 6-1, 6-2.
Arent didn’t drop a set the entire tournament.
“It feels great,” Arent said. “It’s my first year, so I am really excited. The key was just staying calm and just playing how I know how to play.”
Class 4A saw four different winners in each classification. Sofia Acuna of Classen SAS won the No. 1 singles, while Oklahoma Bible Academy’s Clara Cauldwell was the No. 2 singles champion.
Acuna, a junior, finished her season a perfect 18-0 and has currently won 37 straight matches.
Henryetta (No. 1 doubles) and Byng (No. 2 doubles) split the doubles side of the brackets.
In Class 5A, it was Holland Hall who came away with the team championship. They were led by Faith Koontz, who took home the No. 2 singles championship with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Jordan Chalmers from Cascia Hall.
However, no one seemed to have more fun than the Heritage Hall duo of Jasmine Crain and Tokara Henderson. The twosome took home the 5A No. 1 doubles championship after a straight-set (6-0, 6-0) victory against Cascia Hall.
“It feels amazing,” Henderson said. ‘I knew I just needed to be positive and play my best.”
