Rockdale High School tennis players traveled with coach Melanie Seltzer to her former school Navasota last Wednesday, where Yolianna Castillo, Julie Bartsch, Brody Willard and Mason Lillard each left with gold medals.
For Castillo and Bartsch, two seniors pairing up for the first time in high school, they won first place in convincing fashion with an 8-1 victory over a team from Class 5A Montgomery for the tournament title.
Rockdale’s other winners couldn’t have been any more different from their fellow RHS gold medalists. Willard and Lillard, who are freshmen, have played together since they were students at Rockdale Junior High, where they won back-toback district championships and went their entire middle school career without losing a match. The duo won their opening matches by scores of 8-2 and 8-0 before defeating Cameron’s Alejandro Silva and Jaxon Villalon, 8-2. The Tiger ninth graders have a record of 5-1 through their first six matches this season. Other top performers for the Blue-and-Gold were a boys doubles team of Tyler Thomas and Eduardo Rivera, who beat a team from Anderson-Shiro 8-2 to earn a third-place finish. RHS junior Mason Willard also placed fourth overall.
Rockdale varsity tennis players returned to Navasota, playing on Wednesday after press time.
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