Dollar advances to state tennis tournament

It was a banner day for the Newcastle Ladycats at the regional tennis tournament. Mattie Dollar, the lone representative for Newcastle, posted a strong performance and qualified for the state championship tournament.

Dollar has had a series of impressive outings in order to get to this point in her varsity tennis season. The grind to the state tournament began back at the district tennis meet in Mineral Wells.

She was able to win all of her matches in that tournament including the championship match against Woodson in order to get to the regional tournament in Richland Hills.

Dollar and her head coach Ryan Dollar said that they practice two to three times a week in preparation for tournaments like this. In order for Dollar to advance another round, she would need to be on her A-game.

According to coach Dollar, Mattie dominated her first two matches in round one of the regional tournament by scores of 6-0 and 6-1 respectively against Iredell ISD.

In round two, Dollar would faced her opponent from Mount Palm whom she once again made quick work of. Dollar won both of those matches by a score of 6-1 leading her to the third and final round of the day.

Dollar faced off against Ector and similarly to the district tournament, her final opponent gave her some trouble. While they were fighting back and forth for the majority of the contest, Dollar was able to narrowly defeat her opponent 7-6 in their first matchup.

By their second matchup, Dollar had found her groove and won her second match in the third round by a solid score of 6-3.

For her efforts, Dollar qualified for the regional championship match Thursday, May 8 at 9 a.m. Regardless of the outcome of this game, Dollar has qualified for the state tournament as both participants in the championship match go on to compete.

“I thought she did really well,” coach Dollar said. “Taking care of business, putting opponents away and making it happen.”

Despite the high profile situations, coach Dollar reiterated that the stage does not effect Dollar in any way as this type of thing just comes naturally to her.

“We don’t really talk a lot about tennis. She’s a competitor, she knows how to get it done,” coach Dollar said. “She’s going to go out and give it everything she has.”

Dollar competed in the regional championship, where she lost 6-4 and 6-1 in her sets respectively, and then went on to compete in the TABC All-Star Basketball game where her Blue Team won 78-42.

She was the runner up at the regional championship and made second to advance to the state competition. She will then compete in the state tennis tournament Thursday and Friday, May 15-16 in San Antonio.