Eastern Oklahoma County didn’t see any of its ladies become state champion tennis players last weekend.

If you watched the girls who represented Eastern Oklahoma County schools, you saw the heart of a champion resided in all of them.

No one embodied that spirit more than Carl Albert’s #2 singles player Krista Waggoner.

Waggoner rolled through Friday’s action, dropping both her opponents in straight sets, as she made her way to the semifinals.

Waiting for her in the semifinal match was Heritage Hall’s Erin Holsted. Holsted, the one seed, is your prototypical tennis player whole. Waggoner, the fifth seed, by her coach’s own admission, just isn’t.

“She’s not a tennis player. She’s a softball player,” said Carl Albert girls’ tennis coach Jami Albee. “She’s just an athlete, and that’s what we told her. Out-athlete her.”

It doesn’t take long when viewing a Waggoner match to identify tennis isn’t her first sport, and my guess is the state champion first-baseman for Carl Albert softball wouldn’t have it any other way.

She carries herself like a softball player with a grit and toughness.
She sizes up her opponent like a softball player studies a pitcher, adjusting to what’s needed on the fly.

She picks the ball up likes a softball player. Instead of using the racket to hit the tennis ball back to her opponent when they need to serve after a rally, Waggoner picks the ball up and simply tosses it back.

“I have two softball players on my team. They both pick the ball up and throw it back,” said Albee.

Don’t let what I’m saying fool you. Waggoner can absolutely play tennis. She has a deft touch, which is actually quite counter to taking hacks with a bat. Her placement of the ball can be pin point at times.

She just attacks tennis with the idea of winning long rallies and wearing her opponent down.

Holsted wasn’t having any of that through almost two full sets of tennis. The Heritage Hall tennis star quickly jumped on the fact that Waggoner couldn’t get her power serve down in play.

The adjustment cost Carl Albert, as Holsted would power back the second serve, throwing Waggoner off balance.

Holsted broke Waggoner on her service games 4 times in the first 16 games, while only dropping one service game herself.

The strategy gave Heritage Hall the first set and a commanding 5-1 lead in the second. Holsted was just one game away from advancing fairly easily.
But, champions don’t fall easily.

The cerebral Carl Albert senior was making tiny adjustments on the fly with the help of her coach.

She stopped serving for power on the first serve altogether, electing for a softer first serve to dictate terms of her service games.

She turned long rallies even longer by not going for winners, but letting Holsted make mistakes.

“We told [Waggoner] it’s not going to be pretty, but who cares,” said Albee about her girl’s approach to the match.

If there was a hole in Holsted’s game against Waggoner, it was that she would get over-confident at times and go for winners she could execute.

Holsted has a strong service game, but she was starting to crack by double faulting and not getting her first serve down in play.

The mistakes added up as Waggoner essentially out-willed Holsted to the tune of a 5-5 tie in the second set after breaking her twice.

Holsted held out holding serve to force a tie breaker, but the third set was almost a foregone conclusion by this point. After winning the tiebreak 7-2, Waggoner jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third.

Heritage Hall’s standout was visibly rattled at one point, arguing a call to the point of getting a line judge, and how she got her composure back is a mystery.
Yet, she did. Holsted’s break of Waggoner’s service game down 3-0 proved to be the turning point.

The tennis player took out the softball player behind her strong service games, and hitting just enough winners to not be outlasted on the tennis court.
Waggoner fell in three sets 3-6, 7-6, 6-4, and as you’d expect, the fiery competitor wasn’t pleased.

Still, she had perspective.

“It was very rewarding, whether I win or lose, knowing I played my best,” said Waggoner of the tough loss.

Krista Waggoner didn’t win her third place match either, falling in straight sets.
If I had to guess, the highs and lows of the previous match couldn’t be put away to fight for third place.

Yet, the softball-playing tennis player is the fourth best tennis player in the state of Oklahoma at #2 singles. Doesn’t that speak volumes?

So, when I speak of the girls having the heart of a champion, I want you to think of the cerebral Waggoner. There weren’t any losers last weekend, just tennis players not quite as good as others.

All of them were champions.