Boone's twin tennis players, Jordyn and Jayden Gomez, led their team to a 4-2 victory over Lake Mary in the Class 4A region semifinals. They remain undefeated this season and will face Winter Park in the region final for a chance to advance to the FHSAA state tournament.
(Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/TNS)
Two twins in their first season of girls high school tennis made the difference in Boone’s 4-2 victory against Lake Mary in a Class 4A region semifinal match on Tuesday.
Jordyn Gomez, playing No. 1 singles for the Braves, remained undefeated with a 6-0, 6-4 win against Lake Mary’s London Hernandez, a ranked freshman player. Jayden Gomez, won at No. 2 singles and the twins teamed up for 4-0, 4-2 doubles victory to wrap up the victory for the Braves, who are 16-1 this season.
The only loss was to Winter Park, which is the team Boone will face on Thursday afternoon in the region final at the Fort Gatlin Tennis Center — home courts for the Braves. The winner of that match advances to the FHSAA 4A state tournament, to be played Monday through Wednesday at Sanlando Park in Altamonte Springs.
The Gomez girls, 17-year-old juniors, are “non-traditional” students who do not take classes at Boone. They’re actually enrolled at Faith Christian but take all of their classes online — including five advanced placement classes. One of Florida’s school choice regulations allows students whose school does not offer a particular sport to play elsewhere.
The twins are daughters of two UCF graduates who ran around getting them to youth soccer, swimming and tennis programs before asking the girls to choose one sport.
“They both picked tennis,” said mom, Leeya Gomez, smiling as she watched Tuesday’s matches. “They’ve really had a lot of fun playing high school tennis. The team has been very welcoming. They like the group camaraderie and playing together as a team. They’ve had a really good experience.”
And they have a lot of tennis experience, training mostly at the GTA academy in Lake Nona.
Jeff, the father, and grandparents were also on hand as big fans of the team.
Boone coach John Richards, a longtime teaching pro at Fort Gatlin, said the twins are definitely college prospects.
“They’ll continue to improve with more tournament play. They can compete,” he said.
Perennial power Lake Nona and Windemere both won and will match up Thursday at the USTA National Campus.
Other 4A boys winners Tuesday were Lake Mary, Celebration and Timber Creek, which edged Winter Park 4-3. Celebration’s girls also prevailed.
Innovation’s boys and girls advanced with 3A wins against Edgewater.
The standout tennis players are twins Jordyn and Jayden Gomez.
Boone won the match against Lake Mary with a score of 4-2.
Boone's next match is against Winter Park on Thursday afternoon at the Fort Gatlin Tennis Center.
The winner of the match will advance to the FHSAA 4A state tournament.

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Lake Highland Prep and Bishop Moore won 2A boys and girls matches and will rematch at LHP.
For 1A winners, Windermere Prep’s boys host Trinity Prep and The First Academy’s girls have a home match against Geneva.
The 1A state tournament is Monday-Wednesday with play at Red Bug Lake Park for teams and Sylvan Park for individual qualifiers. The 3A matches at Sanlando and 1A matches at Red Bug and Sylvan are Wednesday into Friday.
Seminole made history last week, becoming the only water polo program in FHSAA history to have three consecutive years with both its girls and boys teams advancing to the final four at Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami.
It’s the fourth consecutive state semifinal appearance for the undefeated SHS girls and third in a row for the boys.
West Orange’s girls, who have lost only to Seminole this season (13-8 and 15-11), are seeded second behind the ‘Noles.
Here are the girls semifinal matchups:
Seminole (29-0) vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (19-8), 3:30 p.m.
West Orange (32-2) vs. Gulliver Prep (20-3), 6:30 p.m.
The boys matchups:
Seminole (26-4) vs. Aquinas (24-4), 5 p.m.
Ransom Everglades (27-2) vs. Westminster Academy (16-10), 8 p.m.
Saturday’s finals are 1 p.m. for girls and 3 p.m. for boys.
Girls weightlifter of the year Molly O’Hara had to finish her state championship season in that sport before focusing on softball — but you can’t tell she was splitting her time. The sophomore middle infielder went 3 for 4 with a double and three RBI for East Ridge (22-2) in an 11-1 win against Olympia last week. O’Hara, who also bowled for the Knights in the fall, has played in every softball game and is batting .417 with 16 RBI and 35 runs scored for a team ranked third in 7A behind Hagerty, which was 19-4 going into a Wednesday game, and Lake Brantley (21-3)
Winter Springs (17-6), No. 1 in the FHSAA’s 5A rankings, topped Hagerty 4-2 on Tuesday with Lauren Daugherty going 2-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI.
Oviedo triplets Colin, Aiden and Brody Aysun went 1-2-3 in that order in the 1,600-meter run in the 4A-3 meet at East River. They did the same in the Seminole Athletic Conference meet. Colin ranks No. 3 in 4A with a 4:13.20 time and Aiden is next with a 4:15.42 best.
Timber Creek junior Alexie Valle pulled off another type of triple by winning all three girls sprints — the 100 (12.05 seconds), 200 (24.96) and 400 (57.08).
Ocoee’s boys and Lake Minneola’s girls ran away with the 4A District 4 team titles at Showalter Field.
Oviedo’s boys and Lake Brantley’s girls won the 4A District 3 team titles.
Seminole’s boys won the 4A-2 title on their home track.
Freedom (24-1), Lake Brantley (21-4) and Horizon (21-3) are ranked 3-4-5 in the FHSAA power rankings going into postseason play.
Freedom and Horizon are on a collision course to play in the 2A District 5 final on Friday night at Horizon. Both teams are guaranteed to advance to regional play.
Brantley is the top seed and host for Friday’s 3A-2 final and is also moving on to a Thursday, April 30, region quarterfinal.
Harmony (15-1), now No. 1 among Orlando teams in the FHSAA power rankings, plays the 4A District 10 championship game at Celebration (13-3) Thursday at 6 p.m.
Deltona (15-0), No. 2 in the area and No. 3 in Class 2A, is a favorite to play at home Thursday in its district final.
Other Thursday finals include Colonial (11-5) at Timber Creek (13-2); Ocoee (9-8) at Seminole (11-1); West Orange (12-3) vs. Horizon (12-3) at East Ridge; Oviedo (10-1) vs. Mainland (9-7) at East Ridge; Tohopekaliga (9-4) at Cypress Creek (8-5); Gateway (12-3) at Tampa Freedom (12-2)
Bishop Moore (15-5), ranked No. 1 in the area and No. 4 in 1A, rolled 16-3 win against Holy Trinity (13-4) in a Region 2 quarterfinal on Tuesday.
Oviedo (13-5) plays at Boone (14-4) Thursday in 2A.
Friday night games include 2A No. 5 Winter Park (17-1) at home vs. West Orange (15-6); and 2A No. 7 2A Lake Brantley (16-2) hosting Timber Creek (13-3).
Semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday.
Varsity content editor Buddy Collings can be contacted by email at bcollings@orlandosentinel.com.