Reyna Gonzalez and Devon Whitsel made school history becoming the first Rockdale High School tennis team to win two straight state tennis titles at the UIL Class 3A mixed doubles state championship last weekend.
“I can’t imagine winning two state titles with anyone else other than her,” Whitsel said. “Our chemistry is more of a sibling bond than a typical partner bond.”
Gonzalez said, “I’m really happy that I got to end my high school career with a state championship and I wouldn’t have wanted to do it with anyone else besides Devon.”
The dynamic duo breezed through the state competition winning their three matches with consistent and powerful strokes at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station last weekend.
“We had a heightened sense of comfort going into state versus last year,” Whitsel said. “Our goal was not just win state but to play better this time.
Gonzalez talked about the pair’s mental game.
“We knew that anyone could come in and beat us in the first round,” Gonzalez said. “We knew we just had to play our game and that consistency is key.”
The duo got off to a quick start on Thursday with a 6-1,6-1 victory over Jesse Gaut and Ashlee Wyatt from White Oak in the state quarterfinal match. Later that day, Gonzalez and Whitsel beat Barbara Cosper and Jake Billo of Goliad 6-1,6-1 in the semi-finals.
In the state championship match, RHS dominated the court once again defeating Austin Fairchild and Carlyle Pfeister 6-3, 6-1 of Ingram-Tom Moore High School’ on Friday afternoon.
The Ingram duo got the closest to defeating RHS after a Gonzalez foot fault threw her off her service game.
Gonzalez dug in and landed her serve after losing two serves in a row and the Tigers took the first game 6-3 and brushed past their competition 6-1 in the second set.
Gonzalez and Whitsel mopped the floor with their competition all season long. They didn’t play their first match until late February due to weather. The team played only eleven matches in three tournaments the entire 2019 season. Despite these obstacles they only lost one match, which was their first of the season to the 6A Austin High School doubles team.
RHS boasts three state doubles tennis titles, including Gonzalez and Whitsel, who won in 2018 and this year and the brothers doubles team of Ken and Kevin Cooke, who won in 1985. They’re also the fourth consecutive mixed doubles team from Rockdale to make it to the state tournament after Erin Blanchard and Blake King won back-to-back silver medals in 2016 and 2017.
They did this after pairing up for the first time in 2018.
“It’s crazy how much we’ve grown as a team from when we started playing together up until now,” Gonzalez said. “We had to lose to some great teams and learn from our mistakes in order to get the results we wanted at the end of the season.
This was the final high school sporting event for Gonzalez, who will graduate this Friday.
“Whether we were winning or losing, we always found a way to make it fun without losing our competitive spirit. I wish her the best at Texas A&M and in all of her future endeavors,” Whitsel said.
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