Things are looking up, as if they can look up even higher in light of all the recent district success, for the Rio Rancho High School tennis teams.

Rams girls lose vets, gain Texan talent

Although the Rams girls, with second-year coach Nick Morris at the helm, lost a trio of talented seniors (Alyssa Anastasi, Ashley Bass and Stephanie Lopez, who played despite an ACL injury), Kayla Hammond and Miranda McCaul are back — and he received a top-notch sophomore, Jordon McCormick, from Abilene, Kansas. “My other big loss is Chelsea Murphy, who came out of nowhere last year and was pretty much undefeated all year; I think she lost one match,” Morris added. “She was a senior … she was just fabulous.”

His Rams finished second to Carlsbad after a hard-fought battle. Not bad for the third-seeded team, which topped No. 2 Sandia in the semifinals before falling to the No. 1 Cavewomen.

Bass, a mainstay for years, was the No. 2 seed for the singles tournament, but fell to Sandia’s No. 3, Sandra Walker.

Anastasi-Lopez was the No. 4 doubles tandem at state, but was upset by the top-seeded team from Carlsbad in the semis before settling for third place.

“The team’s looking wonderful this year,” says Morris. “Last year, finishing No. 2 in the state, has inspired us. Quite frankly, I have five experienced girls and seven girls with no game experience, so we’re going to see what we can do this year.”

“What we can do” was start on a winning note, as the Rams beat top-notch Sandia 5-4 in their opening match. Although McCormick lost in straight sets to defending 5A champ Walker, 6-1, 6-3, Rams singles players Kayla Hammond (at No. 3), Katie Fosterling (No. 4) and Tatiana Holme (No. 5) picked up victories, as did the Rams’ No. 2 and 3 doubles teams, Hammond-Fosterling and Holme-Kylie Templeton.

Morris said the addition of McCormick is big.

“It was quite a compliment,” he explained. “Her mom had looked all over the Internet at the coaches at the high schools in the Albuquerque area, and nobody said, ‘I was a tennis pro, not just a high school coach,’ and so they chose Rio Rancho, much to our blessing.”

Morris is the pro at Santa Fe’s Bishop’s Lodge.

“The girl hits the cover off the ball,” he lauded. “She’s been here since the beginning of the summer. She’s been taking private lessons.”

With only five experienced girls, Morris said he’d use that quintet as much as possible and work in the other less-experienced girls as the season progresses.

McCormick isn’t the only newcomer: Mathilde Weidermann, a foreign ex-change student from Denmark who’s staying with RRHS principal Richard VonAncken’s family, is an accomplished badminton player, which Morris hopes will translate into success in another court sport.

There could be more newcomers, Morris hinted.

“Some of the girls on the basketball team want to come out. But guess what? They’re beginners,” he said. “But who knows? There might be a diamond in the rough there. I’m not going to discourage them.”

As for the postseason, Morris said he expects his only competition in District 1-5A to come from Cibola.

He said he has heard from Walker that Sandia also lost a lot of seniors, “So we’re all in the same boat.

“So in a way, I’m kind of fortunate. I have four seniors returning, plus Miss McCormick,” he beamed.

Morris is helped by Derek Dunbar, who is coaching his junior varsity squad, which Morris said, “has at least 34 girls.He’s doing one fabulous job.”

Boys poised for best season?

Boys coach Gordon Douglas, an “original” head coach at RRHS, has a lot of familiar faces on this year’s roster, with arguably the most talent in school history.

The Rams tied for the District 1-5A title with Cibola last season, but no Rams advanced very far in the state singles and doubles tournament — and his team failed to make the 12-team state field last spring.

The Rams’ 208 season got off to a great start Saturday, beating Sandia 9-0 and slipping past 4A power Los Alamos, 6-3, on the RRHS courts.

No. 2 singles player Cody Gibson, No. 4 Chris Dils, No. 6 Morgan Ching and No. 7/8(vs. Sandia/Los Alamos) Dylan Salehian each was undefeated, while the Rams’ doubles teams failed to lose in their first-to-eight-games matches, with Michael Lopez-Ollie Jury playing No. 1, Arman Salehian-Gibson at No. 2 and Dilr-Ching playing at No. 3 vs. Los Alamos, Minh Phung-James Osterlund vs. Sandia.

Ching playing doubles is a rarity, Douglas said.

“Morgan is a good singles-mentality guy. He’s getting his doubles down; he has to play more. He just likes to play singles all the time in all of our matches,” he said. ‘”I want to play singles, coach.’ When you get ‘em in doubles, it makes them serve and volley — I make them serve and volley. He’ll get there.”

Ching, a sophomore, takes lessons from Morris, who predicted he may someday be a state champion.

After a home match with Valley on Tuesday, the Rams head to the Duke City Saturday to get a real measure of how they stack up in an APS singles tournament.

“We didn’t graduate anybody. We had one senior that wasn’t high on the varsity, so we’ve got all of our returning juniors,” Douglas said. “We’ve got a lot of potential.”

Some of his players are so close in skill that the 1-2-3 singles order could change; Douglas also could change up the doubles tandems.

“They’re all good players,” he said. “I guess that’s a good thing to be confronted with. We don’t have a Cody Hall (La Cueva standout) but we have six really strong players. But that’s OK.”

Taking a quick look around the state, Douglas said he expects” Mayfield’s going to be tough again; I’m sure La Cueva will be up there; Carlsbad will be in there — and hopefully we’ll be in there. We’ll be tough for state,” he vowed.

“I’d like to get Mayfield out here, I’d like to get Carlsbad out here and play them one time,” he added. “But we’ve got a lot of competition — Eldorado’s tough.

“We’ll be in there with La Cueva, and we’ll have our chances to see good teams and La Cueva won it last year.

“We’ve got the competition we need to get tournament tough,” Douglas said, adding he’s had another good turnout for what is a no-cut sport at RRHS.