By Thomas Jones, Sports Editor

Revenge couldn’t have offered a sweeter reward for Westlake’s boys doubles team of Russell Bader and Alex Durham.

The junior tandem claimed a spot in the Class 5A state tennis tournament and avenged an earlier loss by defeating New Braunfels’ Matt Dooley and Tanner Brown 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 in Wednesday’s Region IV finals at the McFarlin Tennis Center in San Antonio.

Although no other Chap will join Durham and Bader at the state tournament May 11-12 at the Pennick-Allison Tennis Center in Austin, Westlake coach Kim Riley said the performance of her doubles pair eased other disappointments.

“They [Bader and Durham] are pumped for state,” she said. “We knew it would be close, and they did it.”

In the first meeting between the powerhouse pairs this season, Dooley and Brown won a third-set tiebreaker 10-8 at the Chap/Maroon Invitational. Wednesday, Durham and Bader rebounded from a second-set loss to overwhelm the tournament’s top seed in the final set.

Riley cited her team’s ability to hold serve as pivotal to the win.

“They returned well and, overall, played smart,” she said.

Westlake’s win in the boys doubles bracket justified some concerns from the Chap coaches about the tournament’s seedings. Despite qualifying for state a year ago, Bader and Durham were bypassed for one of the top two seeds by two teams from New Braunfels’ tennis factory. The Westlake pair proved its mettle, however, by topping No. 2 Brandon Davis and Patrick Fumagalli 7-5, 6-4 in the semifinals prior to the finals win.

New Braunfels still enjoyed a stellar tournament, winning three regional titles and advancing to state in three other brackets. The Unicorns knocked Westlake’s other regional qualifiers out of the tournament, including a first-round girls singles win by Jarret Fisher over third-seeded Sydney Bell and a second-round win by Abby Whittemore and Monique Melton over Sidney Tucker and Andie Ingram in the doubles bracket.

Tucker and Ingram reached the second round with a resounding 6-0, 6-1 win over Marcela Vasquez and Cheyenne Betancourt of Eagle Pass.