A lightning-warning signal pierced the air just before the third set of the girls singles final at the District 13-5A tennis tournament Tuesday afternoon. The alarm for Anik Cepeda went off several minutes earlier.

Cepeda dropped the first set and the first four games of the second before rallying to outlast A&M Consolidated teammate Heather Brien 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 at the Mitchell Tennis Center.

Both players qualified for the Class 5A Region II tournament in Waco on April 22-23. They will be joined at regionals by Consol's 13-5A champions Kevin Wright, Kevin Duffy, David Hillner, Jessica Raphael, Mariah York, Amanda Trapani and Nathan Cooner.

Consol won the district team title for boys and girls. Bryan was second in the boys standings and third in girls, with Harker Heights in second.

Bryan will send three players to the regional tournament. Matt Hillestad and Brady Atkins finished second in boys doubles, falling to Hillner and Duffy 6-3, 7-6 (6) in the championship match. Michael Martin will represent the Vikings in boys singles after winning two matches Tuesday, including the only play-back match of the tournament.

The longest, strangest championship match sent frequent practice partners Cepeda and Brien against each other. The senior Brien and junior Cepeda produced some outstanding points in the first two sets, playing before a muted crowd that complimented good shots but didn't overly root for either player.

Brien had not taken a set from Cepeda, but she grabbed the first set and jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second. Cepeda, the defending district champion, began to think about the possibility of landing in a play-back match if she lost.

"Heather was playing unbelievably," Cepeda said. "She came out swinging, which is what I was hoping to do. I just had to laugh because she was too good. Once I was able to accept that she was playing so well, I was able to start playing better."

Cepeda won three consecutive games, fought off one match point against her serve and broke Brien to make it 5-5.

After holding her serve, Cepeda grabbed the set with a pretty passing shot that found the corner. Cepeda won five consecutive games to start the third set.

Brien qualified for the regional tournament for her fourth consecutive year.

"At the end, I was glad that I didn't have to play a play-back and neither did she," Cepeda said.

Wright forced the play-back in boys singles when he roared back in the championship match to whip Harker Heights' Will Truitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Bryan junior Martin beat Aleque McKellar of Belton 6-4, 6-1 for third place, and then Martin topped Truitt 6-2, 6-0 in Martin's seventh match in three days. He played three matches in a USTA event Sunday. Martin battled cramps and hobbled at times during his three-set loss to Wright in the semifinals Monday.

Last year, Martin lost a play-back match and just missed regionals.

"This is huge. I've been trying for this for two years," Martin said. "I felt like I could win today, but I was a little worried about if I'd have enough energy to keep going."

Consol's mixed doubles duo of Cooner and Trapani did not drop a set in three matches. It was the second tournament for the combo, who joined forces after Trapani returned from a shoulder injury and Cooner from an illness.

Trapani (girls doubles) and Cooner (mixed) both won district last year. On Tuesday, they beat Belton's Will Summers and Lauren Knight 6-1, 6-3.

"I thought we could do really well," Cooner said. "Amanda is the highest-ranked person I've ever played with in mixed, and she's really solid.

"In our second match [Monday] we didn't play so well, so we really wanted to come out and play better today. Also, they had just beaten our teammates. We were ready for them."

Raphael also repeated as a 13-5A champion, after teaming with Cooner last year in mixed. York and Raphael won a tight opening set in girls doubles and defeated Kristen Baker and Erin Cullinan of Heights 7-6 (3), 6-2.

• Larry Bowen's e-mail address is larry.bowen@theeagle.com.

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