Double Take

Ashley Bongart left the tennis court midway through the first day of district competition feeling confident.

The Lakewood Ranch High senior breezed through her No. 1 singles matches to land a spot in the finals of the Class 3A-District 10 tournament March 25.

Bongart and her Lady Mustangs teammates also had earned first-round byes in both doubles matches. With a perfect regular season already wrapped up, a district championship was almost a given.

Or so she thought.

Her father, Ed Bongart, the Lakewood girls tennis coach, told Bongart later that day that the championship wasn’t a foregone conclusion for the Lady Mustangs.

“He just said, ‘We are losing,’” Bongart recalls. “I said ‘We are losing? To who? Venice?’”

But it wasn’t the Lady Mustangs’ longtime tennis rival who  was beating them. It was their crosstown rival, Braden River.
The Lady Pirates led Lakewood Ranch 14-9 after winning a few close matches at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles.

“It was impressive that they were able to beat Venice,” Ashley Bongart says. “I knew then that we would have to win the rest of our matches.”

The next day, Bongart won the Class 3A-District 10 title at No. 1 singles before watching teammates Lauren Proctor (No. 2) and Natalia Vuckovic win individual titles as well.

Bongart and Proctor later teamed up to win the No. 1 doubles crown while Vuckovic and Jessie Kroupa captured the No. 2 doubles title.

“It was exciting,” says Kroupa, who admits she was nervous heading into the match. “I was really happy, though, because I lost in the first round of singles. It was my first win of districts.”

With the doubles victories, Lakewood Ranch secured the Class 3A-10 team title. The Lady Mustangs scored 20 points to edge past Braden River’s 16.

“Our big match was No. 2 doubles,” Ed Bongart says. “We knew we had to pull that match out. I knew if we took care of our business, we would be fine.”

Proctor, a senior, and Vuckovic, a freshman, earned their first district singles and doubles titles in their inaugural season with the team. The girls, who both play junior tennis, opted to play for Lakewood Ranch to gain experience playing as part of a team.

“I was excited to be able to contribute to the team and help win a district title because (coming in) I wasn’t sure what to expect,” Proctor says.

As the district champion, Lakewood Ranch will host the first round of the regional tournament April 7. The winner will advance to the second round April 9. Bongart automatically qualified for the state tournament at No. 1 singles and No. 1 doubles, along with Proctor.

“It’s special because it’s my senior year,” Bongart says. “I wanted this year to be kind of perfect, and, so far, it has been. It’s everything I could ask for. I got lucky from that standpoint.”

With its district runner-up finish, Braden River earned a berth in the regional tournament for the first time in school history. Victoria Bernhart (No. 4) and Larissa Labolt (No. 5) captured district singles championships for the Lady Pirates.

In the boys district tournament, the Lakewood Ranch and Braden River teams finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Contact Jen Blanco at [email protected].