The journey north to Waco for the TAPPS 5A tennis state tournament proved fruitful for the St. Augustine Knights.
The boys and girls teams both ended up in sixth place at the statewide competition, which involved 20 teams and took place over two days with a single-elimination format.
Last autumn, the Knights secured consecutive titles in the 5A state championship but narrowly missed achieving a third successive win, finishing as runners-up. This outcome marked Titus Ramon's debut season as head coach.
Three out of St. Augustine's five participants advanced to the quarterfinals.
From April 7-8 in Waco, St. Augustine had their deepest run yet in the state tournament within the boys bracket. During this time, Mariano Garcia secured two victories in singles play, including a narrow win in a third-set tiebreaker, which propelled him into the 5A singles semifinals. However, his junior year concluded with a third-place defeat against eventual state champion Tucker Rannala from Regents School of Austin.
On the boys' side, the sophomore duo consisting of Marcelo Gonzalez and Wayo Rodriguez also competed but were eliminated in the opening round after losing a third-set tiebreaker.
On the girls' side, the Knights had three listings.
The pairing of junior Camila Villarreal and senior Anissa Quesada emerged victorious in their initial round encounter, which went down to a closely contested third-set tiebreak. However, they were defeated in the quarterfinals by Dylan Scott and Addy Teixeira from Regents School of Austin, who would later finish as the tournament runners-up.
In the initial stage, Seniors Ana Karen and Anna Herbig were removed from contention.
During the singles competition, sophomore Amrit Alston secured victory in a third-set tiebreak during her opening match but was later defeated by eventual state champion Josephine Lombardi from The Emery/Weiner School in Houston when they faced each other in the quarterfinals.