HARLINGEN — Harlingen South’s Diego Garcia and Ethan Carter have been playing doubles together for three years and now return to the state meet with an eye on the podium.
Carter and Garcia head to the Class 5A state meet this week as Region IV champs after picking up the gold medal last week in Corpus Christi.
It was redemption for the duo. Last spring season, Garcia and Carter lost in the regional championship to a team from Sharyland High that featured two seniors. This season, they beat the Rattlers’ duo of Diego Sanchez and Eduardo Gonzalez for the title.
Garcia and Carter said it felt good to win it this season. Garcia, a junior, was relieved all of the hard work paid off in their final season playing together, because Carter is a senior.
“We have grown a lot,” Garcia said. “He has improved, we both have, and our chemistry has also improved since last year. We have gotten closer as friends as well.”
The duo teamed up in the spring portion of tennis, but their tandem formed in the team tennis portion of 2022 when Carter was a sophomore and Garcia was a freshman.
“Ethan and Diego have come along way,” Harlingen South head coach Ernesto Escamilla said.
Escamilla said the duo only lost once all year in the team tennis portion of the season to a team from Sharyland High, but they also avenged that loss. Escamilla went on to point out that Carter and Garcia have not even dropped a set during spring tennis.
“That is impressive. They have done a great job and have made tremendous gains,” Escamilla said.
Carter and Garcia complement each other in many ways on the court. Escamilla said their personalities mesh well with Carter being cool, calm and collected and Garcia being aggressive.
On the court, both are terrific players on their own. They also complement each other in that Garcia is a lefty and Carter a righty. Carter said that could be an advantage for them.
“If a team is not as experienced they will serve it right to his forehand, expecting to have backhand, and he can hit amazing returns that either set up the point for me to put it away or he just hits a winner,” Carter said. “It is free points, basically.”
The Harlingen South pair faces a team from Frisco Centennial. The duo lost to a team from that school last season but comes in this season as a No. 1 seed because of the regional win.
Carter and Garcia said they hope to just win that first match and go from there. Winning the first round guarantees at least a third-place medal in state.
The two take to the court at noon Thursday at the Annemarie Tennis Center in San Antonio.
State-Bound
Edinburg North’s Maya Chen is the other regional champ from the Valley after she won the 6A girls singles title. Chen finished third last year and faces off against an experienced Ally Lin from Katy Taylor.
Sharyland High is only sending Sanchez and Gonzalez this year. They face Frisco Centennial’s No. 1 boys doubles team in the top half of the bracket. Garcia and Carter are on the bottom half.
McAllen Memorial’s No. 1 girl, Dania Casas, qualified with a second-place finish at the regional tournament and will meet a girl from Argyle at 8 a.m. Thursday.
The Valley has a representative in the Class 3A tournament being held at Blossom Tennis Center in San Antonio. Weslaco IDEA Pike’s Loui Guteirrez and Natalie Rivera meet Groesbeck’s Kadyn and Johnae King in mixed doubles.
