Hondo mixed doubles team reaches
state semifinals
College Station -- For the second straight year, Hondo
High School has a tennis state semifinalist.
The mixed doubles team of Jack Rochat-Molly Coyne won its first
match at Mitchell Tennis Center at Texas A&M on Monday
afternoon, April 29, before falling in the semifinals later in the
day.
The team which defeated Rochat-Coyne, the pair of Weston Uekert-Whitney
Frazier of Abilene Wylie, went on to win the 3A mixed doubles
championship. That was a recurring theme throughout the 3A
division, where Wylie won all five state championships. Wylie won
four of five last year.
Rochat-Coyne, the Region IV champions, opened on Monday with a
noon match against Alec Lucas-Emily Howard of Center, the
runners-up from Region III.
The first set was close throughout. Other than one service
break each, the teams held serve all the way to 6-6, which forced
a tiebreaker. The Owls prevailed in the tiebreaker, winning it
7-5, to move to the second set with a lead.
Hondo dominated the second set from the beginning, winning it
6-0.
With only a short break in between quarterfinal and semifinal
matches, the team found the going tough against Uekert-Frazier,
falling 6-0, 6-3, to wind up as state bronze medalists.
Coyne, a senior, becomes only the second two-time state
semifinalist in Hondo tennis history.
In 2012, she teamed with Ellen Gilliam to reach the girls’
doubles’ semifinals.
Amy Crowell was a semifinalist in singles in 1992, and again
the following year when she teamed with Alexia Ulbrich to reach
the state finals in doubles.
Rochat, a junior, becomes the first two-generation Hondoan to
reach the state tennis tournament, following in the footsteps of
his dad, Jeff Rochat, now the HISD athletic director, who went to
state in singles three times, 1984-86.
Extended family also has a few trips to the state tourney as
well. Jack’s aunt, Sheila (Rochat) Rothe was a quarterfinalist
for Sabinal in 1976, and a semifinalist in 1978. Jack’s cousins,
Lance Rothe (2000-01) and Lana Rothe both reached state in doubles
(2006-07) competition on two occasions, competing for D’Hanis.
Both were part of semifinal teams as juniors, and finalists as
seniors.
This year’s entry marks Hondo’s first time to take a team
to state in the relatively short history of mixed doubles.
Hondo has one state tennis championship in its history, but it
isn’t recent. John Wilson and Charles Wilson teamed to win the
state doubles crown in 1918.
The runner-up in Region IV-3A mixed doubles, Adam Copps-Tatiana
Bujnoch of Boerne, lost to the state runner-up from Vernon in
three sets.