NEDERLAND, Texas — The 409 will be well represented at the UIL State Tennis Tournament later this week with three locals competing.
Nederland's Megan Do is our lone girl to qualify for state after knocking off the top-ranked player in the 5A Region III Championship.
Do has experience at state in doubles, but his will be the first time she'll represent Big Ned in the singles state bracket.
"It's a great accomplishment, especially since it's singles and I have only myself to rely on. I know it's going to be tough, there's no easy matches here but I'm going to try my best and hopefully bring back a win for Nederland."
Her Coach Jorge Lopez has seen her improvement in singles.
"I think she's got the game to play singles as well. She did really good in doubles her freshman year and she improved a lot. I think since then she's focused more on the singles game. I know it's going to be tougher, a lot tougher, cause you have to be in even better shape cause you're playing all alone out there, but she demonstrated during regionals that she really has the heart and the mind to take an extra mile. Cause that girl was really good and she fought and she fought and for the first time I saw her smiling and celebrating so it was a great thing to see that."
And while Megan does have that experience of competing in a State Tournament, she knows things will be much different this time in singles.
"It definitely gave me more experience, that way I know what I'm getting into. But who knows? Singles is a whole different thing."
Megan's coach also believes that seeing three players advance to State from this area proves how strong tennis is getting in the region."
"Well I really think this region has got better. We have several good 4A and 3A schools. And even 6A with West Brook, I think the region has gotten stronger I think. And I think that our area has gotten stronger. We got better tournaments and we have a summer program now that the kids are playing. I think that is shows the number of kids that everybody is getting in school. So I think in that sense tennis has grown. Maybe the pros have done that, I don't know. But I think we have better quality nowadays."