Memorial's tennis team cruised to its fourth consecutive district championship Friday, defeating visiting Stratford 10-3 in the 18-5A finals.   Memorial's boys single and doubles swept, as did mixed doubles.

    Entering the team tennis season, Stratford was in the conversation of being a team that can go far, possibly to the point of winning a regional championship. Led by Monica Pieratt, who went to state in girls doubles last year as a freshman, the Spartans are a confident team ready to make a statement. “We’re having a good year, I think,” head coach Rory Frazee said.

   Photos by Elizabeth McDonough Sentiment seemed about evenly split as to Memorial and Strake Jesuit's tennis teams playing one another in the 18-5A opener.   Some didn't seem to overly care, such as Mustangs coach Budd Booth. "It's not so bad to have this early, but we'd have to play them somewhere along the way," he said.

  The Katy Taylor tennis team has some returning stars, but they will have some youngsters that haven’t played a whole lot at the varsity level.

  Top seeds were named Monday for the HP/Houston Tennis Association/Southeast Texas Zone Advancement Tournament, sponsored by Hewlett Packard, which will be held Saturday and Sunday at six sites across the greater Houston area. Lee LeClear Tennis Center, 9506 S.

    The Houston Tennis Association recently awarded $10,000 in scholarship funds to seven Houston area high school graduates with the support of corporate sponsors Hewlett Packard and Gallery Furniture and the West Houston Ladies Tennis Association and the Houston Racquet Club Women’s Association. In the photo above, standing (from left) are William Mao, HTA president; Bev Taylor, National Junior Tennis League representative; Daryl Hall, WHLTA president; scholarship winners Samaria Mouton and Michelle Toledo; Cheryl Hultquist Horvath, HTA executive director; and scholarship winner Elizabeth Westphal.

  The Houston Tennis Association will hold a Zone Advancement Tournament (ZAT) Sept. 6-7 to benefit the HTA/NJTL (National Junior Tennis League) free Houston youth tennis program.

  If Sean Liu wanted to test the endurance he's worked all summer to build, Saturday at the Kingdaddy August Junior Open was the perfect place. With temperatures nearing 100 amidst high humidity, the Bellaire High School junior played a nearly two-hour match against Gandhi Bhakthavachalam of Houston at Bay Area Racquet Club, next to the Johnson Space Center.

    One of the youngest participants at this week’s Rice University Summer Tennis Camp could barely see beyond the brim of his hat. Another was working hard on her shot, but grunting like Maria Sharapova with every hit – and usually laughing immediately after. As long as the lessons got through, Owls coaches said, the campers could have as much fun as they wanted. Sixty campers from age 8 through high school were participating Tuesday in the sixth week of the seven-week camp, which began June 2 and runs through July 20 at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

  Nineteen championship juniors, 14 from the Houston area, achieved super championship status by winning their age divisions in the Houston Tennis Association Championship Major Zone tournament Sunday at Lee LeClear Tennis Center. Among the area winners in the championship boys divisions were 18s - Jamie Krasnov, Houston; 16s - Naveen Beasley, Spring; Maury Smalls and Matthew Woolley, Katy, and Michael Hickl, Sugar Land; 14s - James Mao, Katy, Brantlee Rau, La Porte, Maxwell Lee, Sugar Land; and 12s - Florian Willfort, Katy, and John Milstead, Houston. In the championship girls divisions, area winners were: 18s - Julia Hatridge, Houston; 16s - Amanda Materre, Richmond; 14s - Meritt Rabson, The Woodlands; and 12s - Kelly Zhu, Pearland. Cameron Coffman, an incoming senior at Corpus Christi Carroll, also was winner in the boys 18s. Other championship winners in the girls divisions were: 16s - Summer Biggs, Austin, and Taryn Strahl, San Antonio; 14s - Paige Murdock, Boerne; and 12s - Haley Winton, Bastrop. Complete results are listed below. *** Houston Tennis Association Championship Major Zone championships Sunday, at Lee LeClear Tennis Center Boys singles 18 red: Cameron Coffman, Corpus Christi def.

  Three seeded players in the boys and girls 18 singles were upset in the semifinals of the Houston Tennis Association Junior Championship Major Zone tournament Saturday at Lee LeClear Tennis Center. Rose Cabato of Richmond, the No.

Ansley Boarman expended so much energy fighting from two games down to reach match point Saturday that there were times she wasn’t sure she had enough energy to scale the mountain. Every time Boarman, an eighth-grader at Baines Middle School in Missouri City, seemed to have her comeback complete, Sydney Sachse of Boerne, Texas, survived long enough to muster a solid shot or force an error. “This is what all the practice was for,” Boarman’s mother told her as frustration mounted after the fifth missed attempt at victory. Boarman finally converted on attempt No.

The Katy Taylor duo of Audrey Tompkins and Alex Henry finished their remarkable seasons Tuesday as state champions, winning the girls doubles championship at the UIL state tennis championships at the Lakeway World of Tennis in Austin. Tompkins and Henry, who finished their season with a record of 24-1, beat Micah Hernsdorf and Kelsie Lawson of Klein 6-1, 6-2.

  Despite having a new head coach, the beat hasn’t stopped at Katy Taylor as far as tennis is concerned. Three Taylor doubles teams are heading to the Lakeway World of Tennis in Austin for the 5A state tennis tournament Monday and Tuesday, and all three teams are looking like top contenders to win it all. First-year coach Kirk Kniffen is pleased how his doubles teams performed at the Region III-5A meet, and hope they can carry that over to Austin. “They competed real well,” Kniffen said.

      Dulles junior Audrey Wooland is an emotional tennis player.

      Austin Brooks got his second wind when he needed it. Brooks, the Cypress Creek standout, was trailing to Memorial’s Jonathan Chang in the beginning of the boys singles championship at the Region III-5A tennis meet Wednesday at Deer Park. But the senior got some great shots midway through the second set and rallied for a 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 win to for the regional championship. “I was just getting killed in the first set, and I changed it up by hitting some deep shots and it really made a difference for me,” said Brooks, who is going to Michigan State in the fall.

  A group of Fort Bend ISD players made an impact on the first day of the Region III-5A tennis tournament Tuesday at the South campus of Deer Park High School.    No.

  The first day of the Region III-5A tennis tournament offered little surprises, but brought anticipation for some really competitive semifinal matches.

    This year, the Strake Jesuit tennis team finally had the depth to win a district championship. Now the Crusaders are hoping there’s enough quality in a small quantity to make a run to the state tournament. Two weeks after winning their first district title since joining the University Interscholastic League five years ago, the Crusaders have three participants in the Region III tournament Tuesday and Wednesday at Deer Park. Senior David Heckler will participate in singles, and the team of junior Dan Morris and freshman Abraham Hsu won the 17-5A tournament to advance in doubles. Their stories vary.

  The 2007 Team Tennis State Championship will take place Friday and Saturday at the World of Tennis at Lakewood in Austin.

  Cinco Ranch and Katy Taylor faced off Friday afternoon in the District 18-5A Tennis Finals.

    Stratford and Memorial are facing off Saturday in the District 19-5A tennis finals.

  The tennis district semifinals started Tuesday for Spring Branch ISD.

The Ft.

The UIL Region III-5A Boys’ and Girls’ Tennis Tournament took place Wednesday at Deer Park High School.

      Attention: Tennis fans.

The Memorial Park Tennis Center hosted the boys from the 19-5A district Wednesday.

The 19-5A District Girls Tennis Tournament started Tuesday morning at 8:00 a.m.

  The Tennis Cy-Fair ISD Invitational took place all day Wednesday at several locations and hosted high schools from all over the area.

The outcome for tennis regionals caught everyone's attention when the final scores came in.

  The Memorial Mustangs and Stratford Spartans completed a portion of their matches yesterday on a slick court tennis dual.

  Orange, California – The Orange tennis team played against Ocean View in doubles and singles Thursday.

  Houston, TX – The Memorial Vs.

  Katy, TX – Many coaches often say that one of the primary reasons for a team's success is competitiveness and camaraderie.