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SPORTS
Rio Rancho tennis takes down Cleveland in close bout, boys and girls on win streaks
On both the boys' and girls' sides, the Rams took down their rivals 5-4
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RIO RANCHO - Anyone up for singles? Doubles? How about a tri-match?
Rio Rancho’s tennis teams were on board for all of it, with both the Ram boys and girls taking home victories.
On the boys' side, Rio took down the Storm 5-4 and the Tigers 7-2, giving them back-to-back tri-match victories after taking down Highland and Los Lunas in late February.
The highlight of the weekend was certainly the cross-town clash between the chalk lines, with only one match being the deciding factor between the Rams and Cleveland.
Rio Rancho and the Storm would split the six single matches, with two of them stretching into a third set, to leave the contest in the hands of the double pairings.
Orlando Mondragon and Ethan Hendricks would handle business for Cleveland in their 2-on-2 matchup, defeating Henry Hostetler and Rex Gould, but the Rams would respond swiftly.
The pairings of Austin Searle and Josh Ziegler, and Alex Ballard and Cortland Flores, would take the final two points up for grabs with doubles victories.
Searle and Ziegler would also take victories in singles, being responsible for three of the Rams’ five points in the intense win.
On the girls' side, the Rams and Storm would post an identical result.
Rio’s girls took down the electric blue 5-4 as well, splitting singles action before taking the victory in doubles just like the boys would a day later.
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Three of the four athletes featured in the winning doubles pairings would also take victories in singles, including the team of Alexandria Vause and Madeleine Ziegler, joining Makynzi Dudar as multi-point contributors.
The Lady Rams would find themselves in the same position against Alamogordo, taking another 5-4 victory.
A one-point swing of a team win made Vause’s singles victory all the more pivotal, as she took the lone three-set match of the contest over the Tigers’ Ella Giggler.
After a third-place finish for both the boys and girls at the season-opening statewide matchplay in February, the Rams are now a combined 7-0, with district play now under a month away.
Next up on the schedule will be the six-team Larry Larson Invitational, before returning home to host the Bosque Bobcats on March 17.
