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Lady Rams win, advance to semifinals
ALBUQUERQUE — The Portales Lady Rams finished the first day of the Class 1A-3A state girls team tennis tournament with a 6-3 win over fifth-seed Santa Fe Prep.
Seeded fourth, the Lady Rams swept the first four positions in the singles events as well as the No. 1 and 2 slots in doubles to take the victory.
They move on to face No. 1 seed Bosque at 9:30 a.m. today at Albuquerque Academy.
“I’m very proud of them, they played well today,” first-year Portales coach Sara Bulls said. “A lot of them lost their first game and had to battle back.”
Senior Kassandra Short was one of those players who had to perform a comeback. After dropping her first game 6-2 to Santa Fe Prep’s Lauren Hatcher at No. 2 singles, Short stormed back to win the next two games 6-1 and 6-0.
“It was great; we all did great,” Short said. “We started off slow but we picked it up and killed them.”
Senior Bethany Self made short work of her opponent, Lyle Kotsch, winning in straight sets 7-6, 6-2. She was equally impressive teaming with Tessa Bryant at No. 1 doubles as they beat Kotsch and Hatcher 6-3, 7-5 in the last matchup of the day.
“It felt great,” Self said. “They’re a pretty good team, and we all played at the top of our game today.”
