Experience is overrated, as the girls tennis team at Mingus Union High School proved in its opening match Friday, Feb. 27, a 7-2 win over Thunderbird High School.
Talon Whiteley took over the top spot on the Marauders ladder right away with one of only two straight-set singles victories over the Chiefs, 6-3, 6-2 — the other belonging to fellow freshman Emma Williams in the four spot.
“She and her friend Emma came here for eighth-grade parent night [last] February, so I knew they were on the horizon,” girls head coach Andrea Meyer. “They both are good athletes and go-getters, trained by local pros.”
Williams won her singles match 6-3, 6-0, and her doubles match, 8-4, with junior Abii Almanza. Whiteley and junior Olivia Galluzzi, who returned to the team after taking off her sophomore season to deal with injuries, teamed up for an 8-6 victory. Sophomore Phoebe Chilton and freshman Megan Drumm teamed up to complete the Marauders’ doubles sweep of the Chiefs, 8-2.
The rest of the matches went to tiebreakers — three of them all the way to 10 points.
For the full story, more photos and season schedule, please see the Wednesday, March 4, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
