By Tanner McCord
Sports Writer 
Monday and Tuesday of this week held the regional tournament for high school tennis in Lubbock. This season the Cowboy varsity team sent four players to the regional tournament, their boys doubles team consisting of senior Josh Abaya and sophomore Zixiao Li and their mixed doubles team of the two top individual players, seniors Tyler Stayer and Abby White.
Leading up to this point, the four players have been dominant through the season. Abaya and Li were near flawless leading up to the district tournament where they blazed through their competition and made it to regionals. In the regional tournament, the boys played a close first set that was back and forth to a tie breaker and continued an even push from both sides until finally the Cowboys took it in the tiebreaker 8-6.
The second set for the boys doubles was a near mirror image of the first as they went to a second tiebreaker where again they took home the win over the No. 4 seed. In the quarterfinals, the doubles team took on El Paso Coronado, who knocked the Cowboys out of regionals last season and would do so again this season. The boys doubles fell to EPC, 6-3 and 6-4, making a solid run to the quarter finals.
As for the dominant force that is the mixed doubles team, Stayer and White continued their reign over the competition and will be the first Coppell High School mixed doubles tandem to ever represent the Cowboys at state. The first set of the regional tournament for the mixed doubles team spoke volumes about the season leading up to this point. Stayer and White were merciless against Mansfield, taking their first set 6-1 and the second set 6-0.
In the second round of regionals, the mixed doubles team stayed consistent, only losing one more match than in their previous set. Stayer and White took the first set 6-2 and the second set 6-0.
In the semi finals of regionals, the Cowboys took on Arlington Lamar where again they continued the trend of just giving up one more loss than previously. The mixed doubles team took the first set 6-2 and the second set 6-1.
The next day, the duo took on Abilene Cooper for the finals and the opportunity to play in the state tournament. The first set began as usual and at one point the Cowboys were up 5-1 however Abilene began to battle back, winning 3 straight matches, however Coppell took the next two, winning the first set 6-4. The second set started just opposite of the last, as Abilene took the first two matches and eventually ended up taking the second set 6-1. Going into the third and final set, an intense back and forth battle began as matches went 1-1, 2-1 in Coppell’s favor, then 3-2 in Coppell’s favor, however from there Coppell began to pull away as they won the third set and the regional tournament, 6-2.
There was a lot leading up to this point, in fact in the fall season Coppell made it to the regional semifinals where they lost, but still made history as the best team to participate in Coppell tennis and this season they came out strong again, defeating the reigning state champions on their way to win a state trophy of their own.
