By Andy States
SMAC Content Manager
It may have been just his first SMAC tournament, but the tournament atmosphere was nothing new for La Plata freshman Aaron Gomez.
Gomez, currently ranked 16th in the USTA Mid-Atlantic Boys 16 singles rankings, did not drop a set in winning his first conference championship. Gomez knocked off Leonardtown’s Robert Renfrow 6-2, 6-4 in the boys singles final to earn his first SMAC championship.
The title was one of two for La Plata — girls doubles team Anna Wells and Danira Lutui also nabbed the top spot — to help the Warriors take home the team trophy on the final tournament of the SMAC tournament at North Point High on Tuesday.
“It feels good,” Gomez said of winning his first conference championship. “I don’t really feel the same because I’ve been through a lot of tournaments before and I’ve won a lot of them. It’s not much of a difference. You can’t think about it. You just have to move on and focus on what you’re going to do now. And next is regionals.”
The combatants in the boys singles final would figure to have a long high-school rivalry ahead, as Renfrow is also a freshman and currently ranked 43rd in the USTA rankings. In Tuesday’s final, Gomez won the first set comfortably, but struggled to seal the match in the second before taking it 6-4.
“Second set he started stepping it up and I started making a little bit of errors,” Gomez said, “so I had to grind it out from there.”
Wells and Lutui continued what has been a seemingly annual tradition of La Plata winning the conference’s girls doubles with a straight-set win over Christiana Madson and Katie Lewis of Patuxent. The La Plata tandem won the final 6-2, 6-1. In additon to the team’s two championships, La Plata had three other entrants place top four to push the team to the team championship.
Huntingtown’s Zack Newman and Josh Olexa outlasted the La Plata team of Taylor Ross and Marcus Cole 6-2, 4-6, 6-0 in the boys doubles final, while Huntingtown also took the top spot in the mixed doubles. The team of Kim Beyer and Ben Nottage dropped just one game in defeating Thomas Stone’s Mazi Tucker and Costas Galiatsatos for the championship.
Familiar foes met in the girls singles final, with Patuxent’s Cari Hopson battling Calvert’s Amanda Ocker. Hopson won her second straight conference singles championship, topping Ocker 6-1, 6-1.
“It was hard. The score does not tell how the points went,” Hopson said. “A lot of our games went to deuce.”
As county rivals, Hopson and Ocker are quite familiar with each other. But that does not mean the matches are similar, according to Hopson.
“You never know what to expect because both of our games change,” she said. “You have to bring your game every time.”
Next up for the qualifying SMAC players is the regional tourament, which starts this Thursday at North Point and is scheduled to wrap up on Saturday at Annapolis High.
Finals
Boys singles
Gomez (LP) def. Renfrow (Lt) 6-2, 6-4
Girls singles
Hopson (P) def. Ocker (Ca) 6-1, 6-1
Boys doubles
Newman/Olexa (H) def. Ross/Cole (LP) 6-2, 4-6, 6-0
Girls doubles
Wells/Lutui (LP) def. Madson/Lewis (P) 6-2, 6-1
Mixed doubles
Beyer/Nottage (H) def. Tucker/Galiatsatos (TS) 6-1, 5-0 retired
Semifinals
Boys singles
Gomez (LP) def. Kearse (TS) 6-0, 6-0
Renfrow (Lt) def. Graham (LP) 6-0, 6-0
Girls singles
Hopson (P) def. Holden (H) 6-1, 6-1
Ocker (Ca) def. Glessner (TS) 7-6 (3), 6-4
Boys doubles
Newman/Olexa (H) def. Lowman/Webber (TS) 6-4, 6-3
Ross/Cole (LP) def. Wettengel/Erk (Lt) 6-3, 6-3
Girls doubles
Wells/Lutui (LP) def. Stahr/Kelly (Hu) 6-1, 6-1
Madson/Lewis (P) def. Shields/Benke (Ca) 2-6, 6-4, 6-3
Mixed doubles
Beyer/Nottage (H) def. Kauffman/Carlson (Lt) 6-4, 6-2
Tucker/Galiatsatos (TS) def. Capoen/Ellis (LP) 6-7 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-2
astates@digitalsports.com
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