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Critical regular-season matches with PW, Allen on the horizon

Outcomes to determine district tourney seeding

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
gford@wylienews.com

The district tennis tournament commences in two weeks, and for Plano East that means its Sept. 30 match at Plano West and Oct. 7 battle at Allen are crucial to postseason seeding.

“We’ll get a taste of (Plano West), and after that it’s Allen. The Allen match is going to be huge (from) the standpoint of where we’re going to be as far as our standing,” East head coach Don Allen said. “If we can beat Allen, that’ll put us in the fourth seed and we’ll have a home match in the first round … Obviously, if we’re at home, we’re going to play somebody who we beat. It’s in our best interest to beat Allen.”

The first round begins Friday, Oct. 17, with the second round taking place three days later. The district finals are Oct. 24.
During its most recent district outings, PESH fell 12-7 to McKinney Boyd (Sept. 16) and 11-8 to Plano (Sept. 23).
“After playing McKinney Boyd and Plano, I feel like I have a very good feel of what our chances are,” Allen said. “And we have as good a chance as anybody to be in the top two when district playoffs roll around.”

The results of Tuesday’s match with West were unavailable at press time. However, the Wolves traditionally have been a dominant team, so a win there would be a huge upset.
PESH hosts Naaman Forest Friday, something that can serve to prepare them for Tuesday’s showdown with Allen. Plano East was 4-5 overall and 1-2 in district entering Tuesday’s match at Plano West.

On paper, the coach said, East should fare well against Allen. The Eagles lost 14-5 to Plano, he noted, while the Panthers played the Wildcats much tighter.

“In the Plano match we won four of the seven doubles matches, so we were up 4-3 after doubles,” Allen said. “We had to win half the singles matches, and we just didn’t get it done. Our hope is that some of the matches that were winnable — we can turn those around in the playoffs.”
However, Allen noted, athletic contests are never won “on paper.” That’s why, he said, East’s players must step up in order to secure a first-round home match.

“You need kids to believe that they can pull out tough matches. You’ve got to have kids come through in all winnable matches,” Allen said. “I’m talking about the matches that are close, which go to three sets, where there are two really tight sets and we’ve got to (win) the tiebreaker. We’ve got to get the kids to believe they can pull upsets.”
For that to occur, PESH’s players must not let any winnable points slip through their grasp.

“In tennis, it’s one or two points here or there, and the way it is with the scoring in the fall — there is no-add scoring — and we’ve got to win the deuce points,” Allen said. “We’ve got to have kids step up when it’s required of them to do so.”
The coach added, “One of things we stress to them is how crucial every single match is in team tennis. You’re trying to win 10 out of the 19 matches, and you usually figure out that we do have 10 winnable matches. Pretty much all (players in) those matches need to come through.”