The Fredericksburg High School varsity girls’ and boys’ tennis team lost to Wimberley in the Regional Finals in San Antonio Friday morning.
“It was a great playoff run to the regional finals and came up just short of a berth in the state tournament this week,” Head Coach Randall King said.
The Billies lost to district rival, Wimberley, 10-5. Fredericksburg earned a berth in the regional finals against Wimberley after defeating Corpus Christi Calallen last Thursday.
The Billies finished the season with an overall record of 20-6 with a Texas Tennis Coaches Association (TTCA) Class 4A ranking of No. 7 in the state.
“Just like any coach would want, we peaked at the right time,” King said. “We were playing our best tennis down the stretch there. We had seen a lot of improvement in singles, which is what we needed.”
King said that making it to regionals in the fall was a new experience for the team. “For this crew, it was the first time we’ve made that run to the regional tournament since 2019, so it was new to them,” King said. “Getting that experience was a good thing.”
King said the team had 10 super tiebreakers against Wimberley. “We won five of those,” King said. “We were probably headed to three or four more. It seemed like we were headed in the direction for some more.”
Fredericksburg simply feel a few points short. “You know, it sounds funny to say, but it really boiled down to probably about six to 10 points over the course of that entire dual match that were the difference,” King said. “You hear that football is a game of inches, well, that’s kind of the equivalent to where we were in tennis.
“If a couple of points had gone our way in some different spots, we would have been loading the bus today to go to the state tournament. It’s that close.”
The tennis team made no major mistakes in the tournament. “We played well,” King said. “It wasn’t like there were any areas of concern. We just needed the experience, and Wimberley is the defending state champ, and they have a little more experience when it comes down to those close matches.
“That really was probably the difference.” King explained what a super tiebreaker is. “It’s a tie breaker system that decides the match and the purpose behind it is to shorten the format, I guess, and it creates excitement,” King said. “So instead of playing an entire third set, which would take 45 minutes to an hour, you play a tie breaker, and it’s the first one to 10 points and you must be ahead by two, which takes about 10 minutes, and it adds a degree of excitement because everything is compressed into just a few points.”
King was disappointed to see the season end but was pleased with the team’s progress this fall.
“This group really bonded, and, you know, they did all the things that you asked for them to do as a coach,” King said. “They got better in the areas that needed improvement. They gelled as a group, and they peaked when they needed to peak. And we just came up a little short.”