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Four schools from the Brazos Valley will send players to this weekend's TAPPS state tennis tournament, with 20 entrants that include three-time qualifier Maria Morrell of St. Joseph.
Chris Gillar will give St. Joseph two participants in the Class 3A division of the tournament for the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools. The tournament will be played at several sites in Waco on Friday and Saturday.
Brazos Christian and Allen Academy will have qualifiers in singles and doubles in Class 2A. Brenham Christian will send seven players in Class A, with three doubles teams and one singles entry.
The Brazos Christian qualifiers are Jacob Carter and Chase McGuire in boys singles, along with the teams of Austin Rogers/Luke Rother and Kobie Jones/Scotty McCurdy in boys doubles and Hannah Garza/Elisabeth Pierce in girls doubles.
For Allen Academy, Grace Haines will compete in girls singles, with the team of Megan Dunn/Marissa Gregurek in girls doubles.
Brenham Christian's entries are Vitaly Clee in boys singles, plus doubles teams Royce Gross/ Josh Johnson, Ben Dawson/Roy Dawson and Julia Flicker/Krista Novak.
Champions in each classification will be crowned at the Waco Regional Tennis Center on Saturday. The tournament will begin with Class 3A playing at Waco Robinson High School, 2A at Waco Midway and Class A at McLennan Community College.
Players qualified for state by reaching the semifinals at one of four district tournaments in each classification, forming 16-entry fields in each event. Rogers and Rother won the boys doubles championship in District 4 to earn a return trip to state, where they finished second last season.
Morrell is a junior who will be making her third consecutive trip to the state tournament for the Eagles. The 6-footer also is a standout in basketball, playing her way on to the second team of The Eagle's All-Brazos Valley squad this year. Morrell hopes to follow former St. Joseph teammate Jeanee Thompson into college basketball.
"Just to be able to say you went to state, that shows how hard you worked in practice at improving your game," Morrell said. "Most of my athletic training time is spent with basketball, but I do try to share a little of that with tennis. I do like it. It may not be as much as basketball, but it's something that I don't want to quit when I finish high school."
Morrell won her first match at state last year and lost in the second round. This year, she will open against top-seeded Casey Johnson of Dallas Shelton.
Gillar, a senior, is making his second consecutive trip to the state meet. He dropped his opening match at state last season. On Friday, Gillar will play No. 2 seed Ben Wallace of Tyler All Saints Episcopal.
"This year we were in a lot tougher district," Gillar said. "The effort and time we put in is paying off."
St. Joseph coach Rusty Morrell said both players are aiming to advance deeper into the tournament than they did last year.
"They both are very highly goal-oriented individuals," coach Morrell said. "Our minimum goal with Chris is to win his first match and play at a high level. We want Maria to at least get to the third round and see what happens from there."
St. Joseph's Jazz Alejandro made the alternate list for state and could be added to the field if one of the qualifiers is unable to play.
The area players will be trying to bring a TAPPS state championship back to the Brazos Valley for the second consecutive season. Brazos Christian's Nellie Hillner won the girls singles crown last year.
