Fort Campbell picked one championship and very nearly had another on the final night of the 2021 regional tennis tournament in Henderson. Girls’ top seed Victoria Lopez Rodriguez easily picked up the girls’ singles title, while Falcon Andrew Haughenberry reached the boys’ championship match before falling to the tournament’s top seed.
Rodriguez opened her evening against Henderson County’s Kendall Warren. That match went much like her matches on Monday evening, as Rodriguez cruised through two sets without dropping a game, winning 6-0, 6-0.
That win put Rodriguez into the final against #2 seed Sophie Maddux, of Hopkinsville. Maddux played solid tennis, but ultimately Rodriguez just simply took over the match, winning the girls’ championship 6-1, 6-2.
Now comes the wait to see whether or not Rodriguez’s play can gain her a seed at the state tennis tournament.
On the boys’ side of the tournament, Andrew Houghenberry, who burst onto the area tennis scene over the course of the season, started his evening out against #4 seed Nathaniel Crick, of Madisonville. The match was a back-and-forth battle, taking more than three hours to complete. Haughenberry ultimately took the win 6-4, 6-4.
The win advanced Haughenberry into the finals, where he would face top-seeded Josh Plain, of Madisonville. Whether the long first match or the long wait after the match, Haughenberry seemed to struggle to get things going against Plain. Plain claimed the boys’ title with a 6-2, 6-3 win. Both Plain and Haughenberry, along with Nathaniel Crick and Ethan Alexander, will advance on to the state tournament in Lexington.
The Fort Campbell boys’ team placed third in the region as a result of their performance.
