HELOTES – Boerne Champion qualified a girls singles player and a girls doubles team to this year’s 5A state tennis tournament and both ended their 2023 seasons with state medals.
Avi Gallegos earned a bronze in girls singles, while the girls doubles team of Sophia Raimondo and Amber Lewis also picked up bronze.
Gallegos won her state quarterfinals match against Kritika Voruganti from Frisco Centennial on Tuesday morning, 7-6(3), 6-3 and later in the day faced Meghna Arun Kumar from Argyle and was defeated 6-1,6-0. Kumar went on to win the title and Gallegos gave her credit.
“She was an amazing player, and she was better than me today,” Gallegos said.
It was her first appearance at state and Gallegos, a senior, said it was something she worked towards all year.
“I wasn’t thinking about senior year so much, I was just thinking I wanted to make it to the state tournament as an overall goal,” she said. “It feels good, I played my hardest and I went out swinging.”
Lewis and Raimondo defeated Macy Strait and Madison Strait from Georgetown in the state quarterfinals, 7-6(8), 6-3. Later on Tuesday, they fell to Eleanor Archer and Morgan Rose from Amarillo, 6-2,6-2. Archer and Rose went on to win the 5A state title, so both Charger entries were knocked out by eventual state champions.
This is the second bronze medal for Raimondo, a senior, after she also picked up bronze last year in mixed doubles.
“It was different this year, but I enjoyed both state tournaments for different reasons,” she said. “It’s a really special feeling this year, especially getting to play with Amber who I’ve been playing with for over 10 years.”
This is the third trip to state for Lewis, but her first medal, and the junior said she was glad to earn some hardware.
“It’s exciting, I’m super happy, it’s fun to get a medal and be out here and play,” she said. “And I was happy I got to play with Sophia.”
Gallegos said her best memory was playing team tennis in the fall, but added that this spring kind of reminded her of that.
“This season we brought that into the spring, which I really loved,” said Gallegos, who hopes to play next year at the University of Tennessee. “Cheering people on, screaming as loud as you can, working for that one point, nothing compares to it.”
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