I-A GIRLS: The Meadows’ Mauban wins marathon singles final

The spotlight never really found Erika Mauban during her high school tennis career.

The Meadows senior is quiet and unassuming, and was content to watch and observe as some of her teammates got more attention.

On Monday, the attention finally came her way. And so did a region title.

Mauban outlasted Mojave’s Hannah Tatlock in a gem of match, a 6-7(2), 6-4, 6-4, to capture the Division I-A Southern Region girls singles title.

Playing alongside teammates Taler Brazell and Amanda Brazell, who won the Class 4A doubles title last season, Mauban has been overlooked sometimes. That probably won’t happen again.

“The Brazells are great players, and they’re really established in the tennis community,” Mauban said. “But I’ve never really cared what people think or say or if they say I’m not quite as good. I just want to work hard.”

She had to do plenty of that to win a match that lasted longer than three hours.

“It feels great to give it my all and pull this out,” she said.

Mauban grabbed a 5-2 lead in the opening set, only to watch Tatlock rattle off four straight games.
Mauban scrambled back to force a tiebreaker, but still dropped the opening set.

“The main part of it was just letting go of that first set,” Mauban said. “If I would have held onto it, I probably would have lost.”

The two exchanged long rallies with punishing groundstrokes in by far the longest match of any of the Southern Nevada region tournaments

“I just fought,” Mauban said. “It was a hard match the whole time. She played great.”

Meanwhile, the Brazell twins had a much easier time in claiming their third straight region crown.

The seniors were 6-1, 6-0 winners over Faith Lutheran’s Rachel Taber and Chandler Young.

“The experience we have helps,” Amanda Brazell said. “A lot of our teammates were really nervous, but we’re not as nervous.”

The one game the Crusader team won in the opening set kept the Brazells from a perfect trip through the tournament. The twins won nine of their 10 sets by 6-0 scores.

The two won the Class 4A girls doubles title last season, a year after placing second.

With the Mustangs also competing in the team draw at state, the Brazells have the chance to win both a doubles title and a team trophy. They’ve already won one of each, but not in the same year.

“We want to do what we didn’t do sophomore year, which is win the team and individual title,” Taler Brazell said. “We came up short as sophomores, losing in three sets in the doubles final. We’re really motivated to go up there (to Reno) and take it all home.”

All four semifinalists in both singles and doubles advance to the state tournament, which begins Friday in Reno.