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It was another day at the Maryland state tennis tournament for Eleanor Roosevelt High School junior Katelyn Stokes. As she overwhelmed her competition, there came comparisons to another African-American female tennis player who tends to dominate in similar fashion.

"They call me Serena Williams all the time, but I correct them and say, ‘It's Katelyn Stokes," she said with a laugh.

It is difficult to fault Stokes for her bravado. She carries herself with grace and dignity on the court, rarely celebrating a point or cursing a miss, all while earning easy victories. Stokes won her first-round match against Jessica Currence from Fort Hill High School, 6-0, 6-0. She then defeated Century's Paige Olson, 6-2, 6-3, to breeze into the girls' singles semifinals. When the tournament resumes on Saturday, she'll face Churchill's Lauren Pinsky, who advanced on an injury to Rena Shi of River Hill. Matches are scheduled to get under way at 10 a.m. at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House courts.

This is familiar territory for Stokes. She won the girls' singles title as a freshman, then followed it up with a runner-up finish last year. This year she's eyeing the trophy once again, though not without some wisdom.

"Mentally it gets harder [to win]," she said. "I get nervous, I do, but as long as I play my game I'm fine," she said.

Stokes, teammate Subodh Arora and the Bowie High girls' doubles team of Katherine Monks and Anna Nicholson were the only Prince George's County players to win matches in the first two rounds of the tournament.

Arora finished off his high school tennis career with a loss to top-seeded Timothy Klanke of Walt Whitman, 6-0, 6-1, after beating Porter Harrington of Easton, 6-3, 6-1.

Arora, who will study engineering at the University of Maryland in the fall, said his highlight of the season was beating Myron Davis, a freshman from Charles H. Flowers, for the Region III title.

Monks and Nicholson won in the opening round, notching a come-from-behind victory over Walkersville's Erika Dirk and Rachel Lupinetti, 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. But the Bowie pair were eliminated in the quarterfinals in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 loss to Dulaney's Erin McShane and Shweta Shukla.

Bowie assistant coach Bryan Williams said falling behind has been something of a calling card for the Monks and Nicholson.

"They've been doing it all year. They're fighters," he said. "Throughout all the tournaments they go down a set but never go away."

"We're not intentionally losing, but sometimes it helps get things started," said Nicholson, the younger sister of three-time Gazette-Star Player of the Year Zach Nicholson (a DeMatha graduate now playing at the Naval Academy). "After all, our motto is boom, boom, pow."

Elsewhere on the court

Roosevelt's doubles teams did not fare as well as their singles' players.

Juniors Chris Bonnell and Charlie Murphy lost in boys' doubles to Ray Trogun and Aaron Love of Franklin High School, 7-5, 6-4.

Though they bowed out of the state tournament early, Bonnell and Murphy were upbeat as they recalled their highlight of the season, a 6-2, 6-3 win against Bowie in Region III tournament.

"Bowie is such a big rival," said Bonnell, who also plays soccer and hockey at Roosevelt. "We play a couple of different sports and it's always about beating Bowie. They had their fan club there and they were really loud. Whenever we would score a point it would be a few claps."

Ashley Holland and Palesa Motshidi lost in the first round of girls' doubles, 6-2, 6-2, to Pattie Lin and Chelsea Bradcovich of Centennial High.

Amira Walcott and Vinayak Sachidananda lost in mixed doubles, 6-1, 6-0, to Krista Babyak and Adam Tsao of Dulaney. Roosevelt's other mixed doubles team, Fayola Fears and Arjun Ivatury, lost a spirited match to Audrey Cheng and Jackson Feroe of River Hill, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

Despite the losses, coach Roosevelt Brendan O'Connell was elated about his team's season and its progress. Roosevelt had six entrants at the state tournament, more than any other school.

"We had a great year," he said. "Undefeated in county, region title and six teams at states. It's always an accomplishment to win here. A few years ago we weren't winning here at states. Now we win every year and we've actually had some guys seeded."

The Bowie boys' doubles team of Steven Hyre and Erik Heckert fell to Whitman's Pablo Gottret and Victor Osnos in the first round, 6-0, 6-0. Gottret played on the mixed doubles' state championship team last year.

"I'm pleased with the overall results and the kids themselves," Bowie coach Russ Maxwell said, reflecting on the season. "It was a really excellent season in terms of growth for some of the players. I can't think of a downside for the season, except for the rain."

Flowers' Myron Davis was knocked out in the first round of the boys' singles bracket by La Plata's Aaron Gomez, the Region IV champion, 6-3, 6-2. Davis had trouble locating his serve early on, while Gomez placed his forehands down the sidelines.

Kenya Colbert of Flowers lost her first-round girls' singles match to Megan Hahn of Wootton, 6-3, 6-4.