The Plano West tennis team booked a return to the Region I-6A tournament on Tuesday but not without a fight from Flower Mound.
The Jaguars, ranked No. 14 in Class 6A by the Texas Tennis Coaches Association, pulled the No. 8 Wolves deep into their regional quarterfinal playoff match before West prevailed 10-8 to continue its playoff run.
West built a 4-3 lead in doubles before winning six of the 11 completed matches in singles.
Six of the Wolves’ 10 points came on the boys’ side, including singles wins for Dev Mansingka (4-6, 6-2, 10-6), Sameet Nandpure (6-3, 7-5) and Ben Qu (6-1, 6-0). Flower Mound was in position to secure a ninth team point on the No. 1 boys singles line with Arjun Viswanathan leading his match against Taku Coulston before having to retire from the bout during the second set.
Viswanathan had teamed with Henri Keskimaula to pick up a win on the No. 1 doubles line earlier in the match, winning 7-5 and 6-3, but West was able to take the other two boys doubles contests thanks to the duos of Mansingka and Joel Sandkovsky (6-4, 4-6, 10-5) and Nandpure and YiLe Xiong (6-2, 6-0).
Flower Mound was able to hang tough behind strong play in girls singles, which accounted for four of the team’s eight points. West was able to earn wins over Nos. 1 and 6 lines with June Kim (1-6, 6-1, 10-2) and Fiona Wu (6-1, 6-1), but the Lady Jaguars controlled the action elsewhere with Myra Bisht (6-2, 6-0), Sophie Sant’Anna (6-3, 6-2), Anna Burlacu (6-4, 6-4) and Lillien George (6-3, 6-1) all picking up victories.
With the win, West secures a spot in the regional semifinals out in Abilene at the Rose Park Tennis Center. There, the Wolves will take on a familiar foe in No. 7-ranked Southlake Carroll.
Those two will square off at 2 p.m. Thursday with the winner meeting either Coppell or San Angelo Central in the regional finals.