Medals claimed at State for Redhawks tennis

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Courtesy of @LHSRedhawks

Counting down the last two weeks of school, Wingspan looks at the top sports moments of the year. Coming in at #9, Redhawks tennis sent three athletes to the UIL 5A state tennis tournament in April.

Addyson Schick, Assistant Sports Editor

Sending three Redhawks to the UIL 5A state tennis tournament, all three came back with medals as senior Milla Dopson and sophomore Hailey Zhang took second in girls doubles, while senior Sanijheev Rao placed third in boys singles.

“Although it might not be the results they wanted, it was still an amazing accomplishment,” head tennis coach Erica Dopson said. “Very few players ever make it to the state tournament, much less medal. I am so proud of all three of them. They have worked so hard throughout the year and sacrificed to get to this place, congratulations to them.”

The girls double team was close to getting the gold but fell short in the third set 6-4. 

I think we still played well even though we got second,” Zhang said “The other team was just the better team that day since it was a really close match. We had to go to third set, because we won the first but lost the second.”

While Zhang still has two more years left in high school, Milla ends her high school career with the most tennis wins in Frisco ISD history with three straight trips to state, and three medals including a state championship last year.

“As a senior I feel very overwhelmed with emotions as this was my last match I will play,” Milla said. “Being able to have a team I can call family and having us support each other along the way has been a life changing experience. I had many offers and opportunities to play in college but I decided I wanted to focus on my career. This does not mean I am done with tennis though, I will still be playing club sports.”

Rao, on the other hand, will be continuing his tennis career through college, playing D3 at Washington and Lee University.

“We put our best effort and the matches went well,” Rao said. “Tennis was a great experience, some of the best times of my four years. I’m excited to see where the next chapter of my life will take me.”