At the district tennis tournament held in Vidor last Thursday, varsity tennis players Chris Schilz and Chelsea Dickert competed against all schools in the district and advanced to the Regional competition. The duo beat Hardin Jefferson and Orangefield and even though they lost to Bridge City in the finals, they still advanced with second place.

Even though all the schools at the tournament were tough, Dickert said the most challenging team to face was Orangefield. They won that match, 6-4, in the first set and had to do a tiebreaker in the second match. They ended up winning the tie breaker and advanced to the final round, where they faced Bridge City.

Dickert (junior) and Schilz (senior) have been playing as a team for two years now, since they experimented playing a match together at a tournament last year and ended up doing well. Over the last couple of years, Dickert said the two have learned how to adjust to each other’s game play and they have been going through the same routine since the beginning of the season so they can be fully prepared for each competition.

“We work really well together and play hard,” Dickert said.

Their typical preparation for a tournament includes daily practice for two hours at a time, in which they go through drills focusing on fundamentals. Before practice is over, they usually scrimmage other doubles teams.

All the hard work the team put into this season paid off after they clinched their second place position.

“It was overwhelming to get second because we’ve worked hard all season and it was our goal to get to Regional’s,” Dickert said.

The team will travel to College Station next Monday and Tuesday to compete at the Regional tournament.