Santa Fe pulls out the upsets at regionals

Jeff Harrison
The Edmond Sun

May 06, 2008 02:21 am

— The Edmond Santa Fe boy’s tennis team may not have surprised coach Abby Frick, but they left several others scratching their heads during Monday’s Class 5A regional tournament at Tulsa Union High School.
Playing with a shuffled lineup, the Wolves pulled out a pair of upsets in doubles competition. The No. 2 team of Ben Birdwell and Jeff Hendrickson came into the tournament unseeded, and left with stunning upset of top-ranked Union 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
“They’re an unseeded team that took first, so that’s pretty big time,” Frick said. “I think they’re going to surprise a lot of people.”
The Wolves No. 1 doubles team of Christian Pearson and Trent Sanger, who were also unseeded, qualified for state, after placing third. The Santa Fe duo opened with a loss to the top-ranked Redskins, but came back with wins over Moore and Muskogee to finish third.
Santa Fe also enjoyed success in the singles competition, where the Wolves No. 2 Mason Trimble earned a trip to state with a fourth-place finish. Junior Jake Holliday (22-11), did not have as much luck in a very tough No. 1 singles regional. Holliday, who beat many of the other state qualifiers, came up short at Union, placing fifth overall.
“This region was pretty stacked, there were two guys here that will probably have the one and two seeds at state,” Frick said.