Thorndale’s Landry Lay-well let out a roar when she realized she won the UIL Class 2A girls singles state championship for the second time in a row.
“It’s so awesome,” said Laywell, after the match. “I’ve been working all year for this and it feels amazing.”
She crushed Kate Gillespie of Mason 6-0, 6-0 on Friday at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station on Friday.
“I knew Landry was going to win the match the moment I saw the look in her eyes after she won the second game in the first set,” said Lisa Von Gonten, THS tennis coach. “She is a determined young lady and she does not like to lose.”
Laywell won her championship match by outworking and outlasting Gillespie on the court. Both girls volleyed until the other made a mistake and Gillespie was on the losing end of a majority of points.
“I think I counted as many as thirty volleys in one point,” Von Gonten laughed. “She has some very long rallies.”
The senior also beat Gillespie in the Region IV finals match in late April 6-1, 6-1.
Laywell opened the tournament with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Liz Perkins of Moody and out played Jonnah Smith of Wink 6-2, 6-2 with a style of play that is built on outlasting opponents and taking advantage of their errors.
“When she was in junior high she told me ‘I’m going to win state one day’, and from that moment on she worked hard and put in long hours of practice and tournaments,” Von Gonten said. “If you ever needed to find her, you would just go to the tennis courts and find her serving up a basket of balls or hitting against the backboard. She has a great work ethic and always wants to makes us proud at Thorn-dale.”
The Thorndale High School senior said she did what she had to do in order to end up with another championship.
“I did what I did last year where I kept working,” Lay-well said. “But maybe even harder.
“I never stopped practicing and just kept grinding everyday. That’s why I think I made it back to state.”
She becomes the first Thorndale High School tennis player to win back-to-back state titles and is the third person to win a state tennis title besides Lance Betak in 1992 who won the boys singles championship and Justin Schwartz and Jared Melde who won the boys doubles crown in 2002.
Although she will graduate from THS on Friday, she will continue her tennis career this fall at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.
- Log in or Subscribe to post comments.