Westwood downs Houston Memorial to win third team tennis title

Photo by Zach Smith

COLLEGE STATION — Westwood junior Simryn Jacob wasn’t afraid to let out a thunderous yell after every point she won on Thursday night.

The last one, however, had a little extra passion, and it unleashed a mob of burnt orange and white.

Jacob’s match was the clincher as Westwood dominated Houston Memorial 10-0 in the finals of the UIL State Team Tennis tournament on Thursday to win the state team tennis title for the third time in five seasons.

“Every step of the way, they just keep getting better and better,” Westwood head coach Travis Dalrymple said.” They’re showing up and playing their best tennis on the biggest stage, and as a coach, you can’t ask for anything more than that. These kids just continue to amaze me."

The Warriors were on top of their game all week, avenging their only loss of the season with a 10-1 win in the semifinals before another lopsided win over the Mustangs, who were ranked No. 1 in the state and came in undefeated.

Westwood won its first team tennis title in 2018 and followed that up with another title in 2020.

“My mind is blown that we can win one title, much less three titles in five years,” Dalrymple said. “We have a great culture, and it’s easy to coach because the kids know how the program is run, and they want what’s best for each other.”

Westwood jumped out to a 7-0 lead against Houston Memorial on Thursday, winning every doubles match. The No. 3 girls’ team of Alex Mepham and Janya Tellabati, and the mixed doubles team of Gina Mepham and Daniel Zhang both won in a tiebreaker.

Marko Mesarovic opened singles play with a 6-4, 6-2 win for Westwood, and Kinaa Graham followed shortly thereafter with a straight-set win of her own to push the Warriors within a point.

Jacob clinched the title for the Warriors with a 6-2, 6-2 win.

For Graham, athletics was always a regular part of her life growing up.

Both of her parents competed in international track & field events — her dad has two Olympic silver medals — and her older sister, Kiana, helped the Warriors win their first-ever state team tennis title in 2018.

“The first time I ever played tennis, my sister played, and I kind of just stole her racket and starting hitting around and decided to keep going with it, and I really liked it,” Graham said.

In her time at Westwood, she has two individual state titles and now two team titles.

She and Jacob, her partner in Westwood’s No. 1 girls’ team, went 2-0, downing Southlake Carroll 6-1, 6-0 on Wednesday before another straight-set win (6-2, 6-4) against Houston Memorial on Thursday.

Graham didn’t drop a set individually, either, beating Rosabella Andrade from Southlake Carroll 6-0, 6-2 in the semifinals and downed Sofia Mazzucato from Houston Memorial 6-2, 6-2 in the finals.

“She’s just amazing,” Dalrymple said. “I plan on coaching a lot longer than this, and I’ll never have a player of her skill or talent, it’s all downhill for me from here. She’s fast, smart and quick. She’s the whole package.”

It was very apparent whenever Westwood won a match, since the winners would scream out, ‘Go Wood!,’ and the rest of the team would respond in kind from wherever they were in the tennis complex.

It’s one example of how the team aspect of high school tennis is unique, and it’s the one that Graham appreciates the most.

“In junior tennis, it’s more individual, but with high school tennis, you get the team aspect, and it makes it more fun,” Graham said. "We all work hard to have good chemistry, and it makes us play better. I’m sad it’s my senior year because it’s so much fun.”

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Originally published October 27, 2022 in the Hill Country News