Franklin doubles team advances to state finals
Eagle staff report
AUSTIN -- Kayla Casey kept alive her bid for a third straight Class 2A tennis championship Monday by taking aim at her first championship in girls doubles.
Franklin's two-time defending singles state champion, a junior, teamed with her sister Carrie, a freshman, to move into the finals with dominant wins in the first two rounds at World of Tennis in Lakeway.
The Franklin mixed doubles team of freshman Brent Wallingford and junior Erica Wallingford survived a long opening match, outlasting Chandler Short and Josh Sharff from Edgewood, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (9-7). That earned them bronze medals, but the team from Blanco stopped the duo short of reaching the championship match. Austin Carrola and Kelsey Schwind defeated the Wallingfords in the semifinal match, 6-4, 6-2.
The Casey sisters, champions from Region II-2A, lost just two games in sweeping to the final, taking a 6-0, 6-1 win over Lillian Guerra and Jennifer Hernandez of Tornillo. In the semifinal win, the Franklin doubles team defeated Jessica Fears and Mandy Belew from White Oak, 6-1, 6-0.
The girls doubles championship is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Tuesday. Kayla and Carrie Casey will play Andrea Rojas and Robin Wimberly from Whitney, who lost a total of five games in their straight-sets sweep to the championship match.
Two of the Brazos Valley's three Class 2A mixed doubles teams lost in the opening round. Wall's team of Bryce Pfingsten and Emily Talley won a first-set tiebreaker 7-4 against the Lexington duo of Kaelan Blok and Mackenzie Brown, who evened the match with a 7-5 second-set win. Wall won the final set 6-0.
Cayaana Knipfer and Zach Ripple of Krum, the Region II runners-up to the Wallingfords, defeated Garrett Ward and Hannah Word of Centerville 6-3, 6-3.