Just a freshman, tennis player Ryan Beene is headed to the big show.

Beene posted a 33-5 record for the Columbia Roughnecks this season, but more importantly finished second at the Class 3A Region IV tournament to qualify for the state tourney.

“Any time you have a freshman going to state, you can’t complain too much,” Columbia tennis coach Houston Langner said. “Ryan is a scrapper and he doesn’t like to lose. That, I believe, has done him well this year.”

The state meet will be Monday and Tuesday at Lakeway World of Tennis in Lake Travis.

The 15-year-old is the only freshman in the group of eight finalist for the boys 3A singles state title.

“Because I was a freshman, I didn’t expect to win so many tournaments and make it to state,” Beene said after taking a break from practice Tuesday afternoon. “But if there is one thing I want to do at state, it is win my first-round match. That is my main goal, because I don’t want to be the freshman who was kicked out in first round.”

His first-round match will be against Argyle’s Will Stein. Losers of their first round match are automatically eliminated from the tournament.

“That’s it, lose your first round and you are gone,” Beene added. “But if you win that first round, then you have two losses to play with before being eliminated.”

Beene won four tournaments during the season and placed first in the District 26-3A tournament before his second-place showing at the Region IV tournament in Corpus Christi.

There are many attributes to his young game that got him to this point.

“He’s a good listener and a hard worker. And yes, it surprised me that he had so much success this year,” Langner said. “His greatest asset to his game is the return of service against good players and returning everything back.

“For some reason, he just has a knack of jumping on those serves and it’s paid dividends for him. Another thing that Ryan does is dive for balls or serves.”

Beene sees himself as more of a defender on the court.

“I like to get everything back and chase everything down,” Beene said. “I don’t hit as many winners as a lot of other players because I am mostly a counter-puncher. My serve is my weakest point and I am trying to work on that to be more aggressive.”

The winner of the Beene and Stein match at 9 a.m. Monday moves on to a 2:30 p.m. contest against the winner between Cullen Holbrook of Ingram Moore and Matthew Deaver of Silsbee.

“I’d say about five or six of these kids are coming back from last year to the state tournament,” Langner said of the competition. “There are three Super 18 champions playing in this field, and Stein is one of them.

“The thing with Ryan is that he has to believe he can win, and he’s already beat a Super Champ 18 this season,” Langner said. “He’s young and I am thrilled he is there in the big dance. But like I tell him, ‘If you have an easy ball, you better whack it because if they have one, they are going to whack it right back at you.’”

Also challenging for the 3A boys singles state title are Greg Gilmore of Aransas Pass, Price Smith of Lucas Lovejoy, Tucker Mueck of Robinson and Levi Cockril of Sweetwater.

“Ryan knows what he is average at in his game and those are the things we’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks in preparation,” Langner said.

Admission fees to the state tournament are $5 students, $10 adults and $18 for an all-tournament pass.